You mean solitary observance? Well, it is mandatory for a Muslim to go to a Mosque on Friday, but since there are usually so many and no-one is going to go all Inquisition over you, you may get very easily get away with not going at all, and even by not praying at all, ever. That is your, private, personal business. However things like fasting are much more social, and you will get in at least some trouble if you eat in public during the day in Ramadan.
About the smaller villages, AFAIK it's the same thing: private prayer is private. If you want God to give you bad marks that's your problem. I don't know how they are about Mosque attendance.
Again, this is all from my perspective as a Moroccan. I heard that from the Arab countries there in the Middle East we're seen as almost Western.
EDIT: Oh and thank you for your interest. Most of humanity is very misinformed about Islam, including most Muslims. Helping people update their priors there will always be to my benefit... though it's depressing how it seems the information sharing process is below critical point, so that my efforts never affect more than a depressingly small number of nodes.
No, I meant that I was intrigued by how little socializing is included in going to a mosque, and, I admit, left wondering if there's a niche for mosques which encourage more contact among worshipers. I also wonder whether people who've converted to Islam from religions which more contact and help in congregations push their mosques towards the social structures they're used to.
(It's my first time posting an article, so please go easy on me.)
I wonder if anyone ever fully analysed the Qran and all the resources it uses to tug at the feelings of the reader? It is a remarkably persuasive (if not at all convincing) book, even if I say so myself as an ex Muslim. I've started recognizing some patterns since I started reading this site, but I'd like to know if there is a full-blown, complete, exhaustive deconstruction of that book, that is not dripped in islamophobia, ethnocentrism, and other common failures I have seen in Western theologians when applied to Islam. Not a book about "How the Qran is evil" or "How the Qran is Wrong" or "How IT'S A FAAAKE" but "How, precisely, it manipulates you". Can anyone here point me towards such a work?
And where is the markup help in this blog? I can't seem to find it and it frustrates the hell out of me when I'm commenting usual posts.