This morning a few of us decided to head down the street to a café for breakfast. Today is Friday so I had forgotten that we were headed out just about the time of Friday noon prayers. Friday is the holy day for Muslims. They completely block of an intersection here in Zamalek for the Friday prayers. They roll out green mats, the fake green grass kind. And each man (only men participate in outside noon prayers, women pray inside only) brings his own prayer mat. So we walk down the street and see the entire square filled with men sitting, listening to the noon sermon. It was being played on a loudspeaker, so I’m not sure where the actual speaker is located. If I had to guess I would say the speaker was at Azhar Mosque as it seems to be Cairo’s religious leadership headquarters. Anyways, the men are all sitting in the street listening to the sermon, and we head inside of the café. As we walked in we were completely immersed in the bumping of music, the euro style funky/technoish sort. The café, Tabasco, is completely Euro style with European food along with schwarma, hommous etc. We are sitting in this nice over-priced café and can see out the window where the men are all sitting in the street for the noon sermon. While we are waiting for our food my roommate, Chelsea, decides she’s going to go across the street to a grocery store where there is an ATM to withdraw some money. The doors are shut with a sign “Closed for Prayers”. About twenty minutes after we’ve arrived, the waiter brings us our food and then immediately he, with all the other servers, heads outside. They stand just outside our window as the sermon is over and it’s time for the prayer. By this point the street is completely filled with men and their mats. So here comes the dichotomy…I’m sitting in this Euro style café, listening to this weird music which at one point has a lady chanting breathily “the French do it best” to heavy bass and techno background, while looking out the window at least a hundred Muslim men praying in the street. Including our servers. The entire staff vacated the place. After the prayer many men came in to the cafe, into the bumping music, folding their mats in four and placing them on the table, ready for lunch. Is this a dichotomy? Just a further example of the “Westernization” of the world? An example of how culture and religion are one and the same here? Even when the culture is heavily styled, at least on the outside, by Europe? Arabs would not understand if someone proclaimed themself atheist. Religion is in everything. Religion is everywhere. The only question is WHAT religion. Hmmm…will think on this more.