Imaging Brazil 159: Mosque in Curitiba, PR (2008)

A personal selection of photographs with their stories.

159. Mosque 

MAY 2008: Mosque

In May 2008, I visited the Sunday Fair in downtown Curitiba. Almost every narrow street was flanked by numerous stands full of hand-made art and utilities. Then I walked to the mosque and entered. The mosque was founded in 1972, and bears the name “(Al) Imam Ali Ibn Abi Talib”, named after an important personage in the Islamic culture. This imam was the nephew and son-in-law of Prophet Mohammed. The mosque does not only attract worshipers from the city, but from far beyond, and even from abroad. Visitors are encouraged to visited the mosque. They have to take off their shoes at the entrance, and women are offered a headscarf, which they should wear inside the mosque. I already had visited the mosque in 2005, and I was caught by the serenity inside the building. The dark red, soft carpets were in sharp contrast with the light green walls and large arcs. The central space was mostly empty, and there were some tourists who received elaborate information by one of the hosts. The Islam is a relatively small religion in Brazil, and is mainly concentrated in the states of São Paulo and Paraná. Brazil boasts that Jews and Muslims live together in peace with each other, and that they spontaneously visit each other to have coffee or tea together.

 

© Adriano Antoine Robbesom 2008, 2016