A Trini - Canadian walks into a Mosque, a Synagogue and Several Churches

     During my last week in Rome, I had the honour of entering both a synagogue and a mosque for the first time in my life. After visiting what seemed like a million churches in Rome and, (as a Roman Catholic), loving every one of them, it was a nice way to end off the interreligious dialogue component of our course.

    The synagogue is located in the old Jewish ghetto of Rome. It is in this area that Jews were forced to live and had many restrictions put upon them in the past. Our visit included the museum under the synagogue where we saw a copy of the declaration that announced forming the State of Israel.

The Great Synagogue of Rome

A picture I took of the beautiful square dome inside the Synagogue

Declaration of the State of Israel

        Our friend and classmate Oded, who was born and grew up in Tel Aviv, Israel, drew my attention to an extraordinary black and white photo of crowds of Jews in Rome celebrating this declaration beneath the Arch of Titus. This was historic since that Arch is a celebration of the destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 A.D. It shows the looting of religious treasures, including the sacred Menorah, which was carted off to Rome. Therefore, this gathering was significant on many levels.

The Jewish community celebrating the formation of the State of Israel under the Arch of Titus in Rome
(Source: United States Holocaust Museum)

        We also visited the Grand Mosque of Rome, one of the largest mosques in the world). There, we were given a tour by Imam Nader Akkad. I was moved by Imam Akkad's humility and his patience in explaining the significance of the mosque's beautiful architecture. A high point for me was when he explained that Muslims pray by touching seven points on their body, (feet, knees, hands and forehead), to the floor and the great reverence with which he demonstrated this practice. He also explained that this mosque is a place that is open to all and when we were leaving, he thanked us for our visit and told us (people of different faiths), that if we were to visit again, to please consider this mosque to be our mosque.

Grand Mosque of Rome

A picture I took inside the main hall of the Mosque.

        I noted some commonalities between the Great Synagogue and the Grand Mosque. Both were designed by Italian Architects who belonged to neither faith but were chosen because of the great skill and beauty of their designs. Both places of worship refrain from depicting images of God or anything supernatural out of reverence for the divine. Each, however, included verses of scripture on the inner walls, in Hebrew and Arabic respectively. In each place of worship head coverings were mandatory but for different sexes - yarmulke's for men in the synagogue, veils for women in the mosque.

        We learned so much on these visits and I couldn't help but feel it was providential that a Trinidadian who emigrated to Canada got to visit two places of worship very dear to both locals and immigrants of Italy.

        Beauty draws us to the divine and on this visit to Rome and its spectacular religious, cultural and historic sites, we touched the divine and the divine embraced us all.