Something people do not know, I have been thrown out of each main major religious site in Jerusalem. I was in line to see the Church of the Holy Sepulcher with a group of other strangers, and marched in line as everyone else. Once we got inside we were looking around and some Eastern (all in black, big beard, but just assuming) Priest popped in, looked at us all, and started speaking to us in Greek, I think, and shooed us all out. Still not sure what we all did. Was at the Wailing Wall, in the underground portion on the left where the Orthodox (Jewish this time) study. I was looking around at the stone arches thinking about architecture and building materials, and a Christian group came in videotaping the Orthodox praying. They got really upset and tossed them out. The main guy screaming looked at me and pointed and pointed to the entrance. I made gestures that I was not with the Christian group, and he shrugged, nodded sheepishly, and indicated, with far less force, that I should leave anyway. On the Dome of the Rock I was getting a tour and the guide was asked how much I was paying by someone else, in Arabic. I spoke much better Arabic than I do now, and I heard that apparently I was paying double the normal price. When the tour was over I asked, in Arabic, if I could pay the regular price and the guide glared at me, told me to pay 50 instead of 100, and to get out.

@Saeed Purcell it was not bad, and all sort of amusing in retrospect. The Orthodox Jewish guy who tossed me Gave me a pat on the back on the way out. Just wrong place wrong time.

My name is Matthew and my story is complex. I joined the military at 18 and served between 1995 and 2019 when I retired. In 2003 I was sent to Cairo to study Arabic and get an MA. I developed a deep appreciation of Islam and Muslims and kept that for the next decades. After I retired, I attended Duke Divinity School for deeper study. I decided that I could not accept the Christian Trinity and while I respected Jesus I did not think he was God. I was actually told in a theology class that if we did not want to accept the Trinity we should leave. One classmate did. I went back to studying Islam and have been praying for the past several years, started while at Duke, and attend the Mosque when I can and an halaqa weekly for reverts. I have not made Shahada yet because it’s a delicate situation with my wife but I living an Islamic life. I am here to learn more.