Is it OK for me to attend a workshop/state training that is being held in a room in an Islamic school building?

 

If there is a big need, one may attend a workshop (that is in a Kosher fashion) taking place in a Muslim school. This is especially since the event is not taking place in the actual mosque.

 

Sources:

There is a dispute whether one may enter a mosque. Thus, one should only enter if there is a great need. A school building where there is no worshiping is even more lenient. Even if there is worshiping there, the fact that it’s not perceived as a house of worship adds to the leniency.

Rambam (Hilchos Ma’acholos Assuros 11:7) holds that Yishmaelim do not serve Avodah Zarah. So writes the Taz (Yoreh Deah 124:4) that Yishmaelim do not serve idolatry and Ben Ish Chai (Shana Shenia Parshas Balak 2). See also Yabia Omer VII YD 12:4. Teshuvos Vhanhagos 4 OC 35.

The view of the Ran in Sanhedrin 61b, is that Yishmaelim are considered idol worshipers, since they prostrate themselves there. Therefore, some say one may not enter a mosque, and so rules the Tzitz Eliezer (14: 91.18:47) and Divrei Yatziv (OC 90. YD 40).

The accepted practice is to Daven in Meoras Hamachpeila despite the presence of mosques there. Some maintain that Davening there is permissible even according to the Ran. As to the Rebbe’s opinion on the matter, see Heichal Menachem 3 p. 285. Hiskashrus 537. English letter from 9 Tammuz 5740, in The Letter And The Spirit Volume 3 p. 447

 

 

#1500