My friend Emine2 knows that I am professionally interested, and personally enjoy all

sorts of mosque occasions, in particular the ubiquitous kermes events that are a mix

of an open house, community get-together and fundraiser. One Saturday afternoon

in the fall of 2007, Emine told me that the small Takva Community was holding

such an event in their premises on Stuttgart’s eastern outskirts. Emine, her daughter,

my daughters and I piled into Emine’s car and headed east. Close to the river port

facilities we turned into an industrial side street. Passing workshops, office buildings

and smaller industrial facilities, we arrived at an inauspicious-looking middle-sized

office/industrial complex. We parked in front of the building which looked rather

deserted. We were puzzled, as we had expected parked cars, perhaps a few chil-

dren playing or people chatting outside. Approaching the door, we saw that we had

arrived at the correct facility: a poster (in Turkish) announced the kermes and beside

the door was a small sign indicating that these premises housed a Turkish parents’

association (not a mosque or religion association). We walked around the building

into the industrial backyard that had production facilities extending more than 100

metres to the back including delivery facilities for trucks. We explored some more

details and several doors of the complex. Ten minutes later we left. Emine later

found out that the kermes had started shortly after we had left. However, we were

not going to have our excursion spoiled by these circumstances. After all there were

other mosques with plenty of features and attractions to keep ourselves busy on

this afternoon. We headed back toward the Medina Mosque.