Waiting to Pray

People go to their respective places of worship everyday.  They go up the steps and walk in the door, maybe to the sound of birds chirping, buses whirring past or a choir beginning to sing.  Here in the West Bank, the Call to Prayer is a beautiful sound of celebratory prayer, especially the evening prayer immediately before Muslims break their fast during Ramadan.  Each time I hear it, I think about those waiting in line to pray at the mosque in Hebron.

This is what it sounds like when Muslims try to enter the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron to pray, guarded by Israeli soldiers with machine guns and two turnstiles.