Religion

I have been dying to write a post about religion here in Irbid and other more conservative parts of Jordan. Religion and its role in every day life and the way people view it are very different from in the States. I realized this 10 minutes before our plane's takeoff from New York, on the TV screen in our isle, before the seat belt video, the video had verses from the Qur'an moving accross the screen.
Walking around Irbid and looking at the shops really illustrates how different religion is viewed here. The entrance to about 80% of the shops have "Bismi Allah ar Rahmani ar Ar Rahiim" (In the Name of God the Merciful the Compassionate... the first ayah (verse) of the Qur'an) or "ma sha Allah" (what God wills). Thus everytime you enter a store you have to step under Qur'anic verses. I can honeslty say every store I've been into here in Jordan has Qur'an displayed by the cashier or some place visible.
Often times there's Islamic memorabalia in most of the stores. Store's walls often have posters or tin plates decorated with suras from the Qur'an. In addition, I often find paintings or pictures of the Ka'aba in Mecca or the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem (two of the holiest sites in Islam). In about 50% of the restaurants or stores, I've found TVs playing Qur'anic recitations with the verses flashing on the screen. This is just the stuff you see, conversations with Arabs about religion is also completely different from the way we go about conversing about religion in the States.
Religion is a very common of conversation with people, that's something I experience just about daily. After meeting someone and conversing with them for five minutes, I've found it really common for the Muslims here to straight out ask me if I was Christian. Surprisingly I've found that no one has ever argued with me about religion. Perhaps that's because I usually talk more about Islam and avoid Christianity altogether. Taking a class on Islam last spring has proved unbelievably helpful. I've been able to talk about Muslim theologians from the 8th century (one of the security guards I've had tea with had written down some famous quotes from the Iraqi theologian al Shafi') and the five pillars of Islam. Knowing stuff about Islam has I also think given me the chance to reduce prices on some things.
To Muslims here in Jordan, the Qur'an and the Prophet Muhammad are beloved. In some Arabic songs the name Muhammad is used to mean beloved that's how revered he is. When refering to Islam's prophet, all Muslims here say "Salaat Allahi wa 'alihi salam" (God's prayers and peace be upon him). As I've said before, I find the Qur'an constantly displayed publically in with great reverence.
I'll comment more on this in other posts... Islam is incredibly important here in Irbid.