Take a stand against hatred

[dehaywardati]

A rabbi has started an online "collection's plate/tzedakah box" to cover the costs of cleaning/replacing the prayer rugs a drunk bigot ruined with his urine earlier this week in a New York mosque. Please consider donating to this most worthy cause; stand with our Muslim Americans in saying that it is never appropriate to defile the sacred space of

Comments

[my_innersanctum]

what a wonderful gesture. just a little more info here. urine along with a few other things are considered "najas", impure by muslims and when one comes in contact with them a ritual cleaning called the "ghusl", or greater wudu (ritual cleansing, or ablution). muslims perform wudu and in some cases tayammum (wudu without water). the daily performance of wudu involves rinsing the hands, face, inside of the mouth, inside of the nose (by snorting water carefully), forearms, ears and then top of the head, and finally the feet to the ankles (some do to the knees. wudu is needed when one has become "impure" usually by passing gas, relieving oneself or having slept. ghusl is necessary if one has touched urine, feces, dead animals/people, the saliva of a dog, or engaged in intercourse. i'm sure there are specifics that should be included in this discourse that i may miss but these are the basics. to drive home my point, coming into contact with urine makes an item of clothing unfit for use during prayer and it must be washed. thus the rugs are unusable untile they are washed. a person who comes into contact with urine must do the ghusl cleansing mentioned above which means doing the daily wudu then immediately washing one's hair and head. notice i say washing rather than the rinsing as is done in the daily wudu. after washing the head one washes the right side of the torso down to the fingers then the left side is done in the same manner. the right side from the navel down to the feet and then the left side. this completes the ghusl washing. i hope this illustrates to what degree the urine itself is considered an impurity by muslims. on the part of the perpetrator, i suspect it's not wasted on anyone reading this thread that defiling a place of worship is considered heinous in most religions in the world today including christianity, islam, and judaism.