Before you start to worry, I did not cause an inter-religious incident!
Yesterday, our 'Islam in the Contemporary World' class had the privilege of visiting the Butetown Mosque, and observing prayers.
I had dressed carefully, with modestly in mind, wearing trousers and a long, high-necked and unfeasibly-long-sleeved top. I even wore a nice scarf in case I was asked to cover my head. All was fine until we arrived and removed our shoes. For the first time in (honestly!) a year or more, I had allowed myself to put on odd socks... At least both were stripy, even if that's all they had in common.
A member of the Mosque showed us around and spoke with us at length. The time came for the traditional showing of thanks for his time and effort, but my brief attempt to initiate a clap was resolutely ignored by my colleagues. Words of encouragement came as we left the venue,
from the blindingly obvious "Your attempt to initiate the clapping fell a bit flat, didn't it?" to the rather charming "Yeah, that was pretty 'special'!"
Politeness is dead folks.
