This article about the protests in Egypt contains a photo of some men praying, standing in the street. Four of them have large dark marks on their foreheads. I am assuming since they are all so similar that they are not birthmarks. Does this sort of mark have some cultural significance?
If you pray a lot and very, I guess, vehemently, you tend to get that mark on your forehead. Among (some) Muslims, it can be a mark of pride.
Only if, in the act of praying, you press your head against something dirty, like the ground. (Just thought I’d mention this in case anyone got the idea that God magically darkens the foreheads of people who pray to him vehemently… 
)
No jokes please, I really want to know the real answer.
That was a real answer. A lot of people try really hard to get that mark because it’s a mark of pride.
My grandparents’ cook/help is Muslim (so are they/we) and he developed that mark from praying.
Wiki even has an article on the phenomenon.
Hi Freudian, my remark about not joking was directed at psychonaut. I have heard of what you are referring to but did not realize it was such a large mark. I visited Egypt once and don’t remember noticing anyone with that mark. Is it very unusual?
Ah, gotcha.
I don’t know too much about it, and the one prayer bump I have seen in the flesh as it were wasn’t as big as theirs. Not sure why the pictured bumps were so much larger.
I wasn’t joking. I was clarifying the previous response. There are so many different ways that people pray that that response didn’t make it obvious why any of them would cause a mark to appear on someone’s forehead.
Sorry, I meant the aspect of lowering the head to the floor to touch the ground.
It’s not from dirt on the floor. It is essentially a callous that builds up on the forehead of those that pray with their head on the ground/mat/floor etc.
But did you see the photo? It looks like a very large, dark birthmark or bruise that covers the entire central portion of the forehead. It’s not just a little bump or a small spot.
oops – I see they have changed the photo on the web site. I cannot find the original photo.
Yeah, I was just going to say I don’t see the photo you’re talking about.
Thanks for the new link. Also I was wondering, since they are praying standing up, do you think they might be Coptic Christians? Or do Muslims sometimes pray standing up when they don’t have a rug to kneel upon and they are outside?
I think that on the SDMB, you’ll get both!
Best wishes,
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Yeah, that’s not a prayer bump and they’re not praying in the style that gets you a prayer bump. That’s either a large bruise, port wine stain (unlikely since it’s in multiple people - unless they’re all close relatives) or dirt/stain which may or may not have a religious significance.
I don’t know what it is, mind, but I will post to agree with you and verify that you’re not crazy for continuing to ask for another explanation.
In that photo, there are three men with quite significant markings. My money’s still on the prayer bump explanation, albeit a few extreme cases.
However, the dude in the front center’s bump kinda looks like the profile of a sleestack. I think we have a Land of the Lost fan here.
Similar as proof of dedication. Practice enough and you get the Violin Hickey.
Cartooniverse
No. Muslims stand, kneel, and prostrate themselves at different points in the prayer. See this illustration from Wikipedia, where the author describes the positions as:
All the men in the photograph look like position b from the wiki illustration, with their right hands around their left wrists.