Dingo the Dissident

THE BLOG OF DISQUIET : Qweir Notions, an uncommonplace-book from the Armpit of Diogenes, binge-thinker jottings since 2008 .

Sunday 20 April 2014

Religious architecture

Mosques carry and contain
an ambivalent sexual symbolism.
They can represent the scalped phallus
of male domination reaching up to God's home,
which is a sort of beggarless Riyadh in the sky -
or on the other hand they can show
the worshipper or casual passer-by
that no matter how big and high
and marble-smooth the dome,
the actual workings of religion are down below.

1 comment:

Marcus Billson said...

OK, and here's what's really down-below. There are two entrances to mosques in non-Islamic countries; these will be clearly labeled in the language of the country: to the right is for "Believers" and the one to the left is for the "Infidels." Likewise, staircases opposite the entrances are also segregated--to the left for the females and to the right for the males. On an upper floor is a large carpeted empty domed room for worship. Only men are permitted to approach the door and enter here. Downstairs, only remember now, downstairs for men descending will be on the left are meeting rooms and bathrooms. The spotless male bathroom, done tastefully in tiles (sparkling bright they are so shiny and clean) of white and blue or white and green, has many washbasins but NO urinals. A man does his business in one of ten floor-to-ceiling doored cabinets inside each of which is the toilet. Opposite the washbasins in the male bathroom is a large completely tiled room--floor, benches, walls, and ceilings--with a tiled trough going completely around the floor at the walls with spigots placed at intervals opposite tiled benches. These are for men who must wash their feet before entering the domed praying-worshipping room above. The meeting rooms opposite the bathrooms are all painted a dazzling white and have cameos of Arabic written in golden letters for wall decoration and inspiration (presumably from the Qu'ran--I don't read Arabic).