2nd Listening Post

After my successful first experience during my first listening post, I was looking forward to coming back to Masjid An-Noor. This time, they would recognize me and I wouldn't have such a hard time dealing talking with people. I also felt confident as opposed to worried. However, I have to say that this last visit was an unmitigated failure.

I originally meant to return to Masjid An-Noor the week after my first visit, however I came to a problem: A metal gate pulled across the entrance and nary a single car in the parking lot. I would stay for at least a half hour at a time, only to find absolutely nothing. This happened three times, leading to increased frustration and increased panic. It got to point where I emailed Professor Reisner about changing the location of my project.

I decided to try again on Sunday, hoping that people would be going to the Islamic School located on the premises. At first, I came up to the entrance and found the gate closed again. In my frustration, I decided to drive around and look for any other possible entrances, despite never seeing any other places that I could get into the area. Much to my surprise I found another entrance that lead right into the area with the mosque and the school. Not only that, but I saw that most of the cars were parked in this back area, well away from my sight.

Aside from the goals of this class, I learned the valuable lesson of scoping out areas that I'm covering. I thought that because I read about the location online and walked around the mosque that I had seen everything. Clearly, that was quite wrong and lead to way more stress than was necessary. I learned after the first post to get the phone numbers of people I talk to and now I learned to thoroughly check out locals before I even get started.

To add to this, when I came in I found few people at the mosque. There were few cars in the lot and what seemed like fewer people walking around the premises. I walked into the mosque, but didn't find anybody in there. Considering that it wasn't time for any of the daily required prayers, it wasn't a surprise, but I didn't expect that nobody would be inside.

I went back outside and found a group of men talking about the mosque and some about their lives. Considering that these were the only people I saw around, I walked up and tried to strike up some conversation. To say that they were stand-offish would be putting it likely. I introduced myself as a student and gave my usual introduction and I was barely even acknowledged. I tried this for another 10 to 15 minutes before giving up and excusing myself.

I took a walk around the mosque and toward the Islamic School, but found nobody inside. I walked outside and saw a couple more people there, but the group consisted of women and children. I didn't approach them because they were playing with their children, as well as the odd stigma that the men were projecting about talking to women. I didn't want to risk ruining my last visit for the class for a slim chance of getting anything.

I stayed for another 15 minutes, then left. I was feeling a panic attack coming and I'm sure that would've been the whipped cream topping on the cake. I now know that I have a lot riding on my last visit to the mosque. I'm hoping that I can get better results by going at the same time period that I went last time.