Muslims should pray inside their homes

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Sep 14, 2012 at 22:45

Dear Dr Pipes,

Someone on the news media today pointed out as a routine fact that violence in Islamic parts of the world occurs more often on Fridays. Even in this instance of middle eastern violence opposing the anti-Islam movie, the majority of the cases of violence occurred on a Friday. Is it a result of insinuation that might be occurring during the Friday prayers or just the mob mentality? Either way Islamic world should learn to pray inside their homes or in very small groups. It is a practical advice which is not anti-Islamic.

All around the cities in the world you will find mosques where thousands of people can assemble and pray together. The ancient wisdom of congregational prayer was quite ok at a village or tribe level but any group of thousands of people an turn violent. And doing so once in a while is ok but doing so once every week or even more often is a recipe for danger. I do not know any other situation where thousands of people congregate with the same regularity except in Islamic prayer and professional sports. But things are very controlled in professional sports and issues very different.

I believe that if Muslims start praying individually or in very small groups, there will be more peace and possibly more spirituality than there is now.

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