{"id":73677,"date":"2024-02-05T13:10:26","date_gmt":"2024-02-05T20:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=73677"},"modified":"2024-02-05T13:10:47","modified_gmt":"2024-02-05T20:10:47","slug":"open-mosque-day-opens-minds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2024\/02\/05\/open-mosque-day-opens-minds\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Mosque Day opens minds"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Cultural Art:<\/strong> Christine Stewart gets a henna design done by one of the volunteers at the Al-Salam Centre in Calgary, Alta on Sunday, Jan. 14, 2024 during the Meet Your Muslim Neighbour Open Mosque Day event. (Photo by Fernando Moreno-Prado\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T<\/span>he Muslim Association of Canada (MAC)<\/a> and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA)<\/a> welcomed Calgarians of all backgrounds and beliefs at the Al-Salam Centre for the Meet Your Muslim Neighbour Open Mosque Day event.<\/p>\n

The mosque hosted guest speaker Dr. Sabeel Ahmed, who flew in from Chicago. He dedicates his efforts to combating Islamophobia and spreading his faith’s peaceful message.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany times, we don\u2019t have time to research,\u201d said Ahmed, who is director of GainPeace<\/a>. \u201cWhatever the media says, we just take it as truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Informative mission:<\/strong> Dr. Sabeel Ahmed, director of GainPeace sits in the prayer room. He was there to educate, interact and pray. (Photo by Fernando Moreno-Prado\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The organizers sought to build alliances and stronger communities especially among the non-Muslim people living in the neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe concept of this event is to bring communities of different faiths and different cultures together to share information and to know more about each other,\u201d said Fakhir Habib who is in charge of the outreach department of the local ICNA chapter.<\/p>\n

The open house included tours of the mosque, explanations of the Quran, and the chance to have henna design art done on hands. Refreshments included shawarma, samosa and a sweet desert called jalebi. Guests were provided with gift bags that contained a Quran, some pamphlets and a chocolate bar.<\/p>\n

Female visitors learned about putting on their own hijabs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just really cool to hear about how you don\u2019t even have be a Muslim to wear one,\u201d said Sage Campbell, an agnostic attendee. \u201cIt\u2019s just all about modesty.\u201d<\/p>\n

A booth was dedicated to Arabic calligraphy where guests could have their names written in Arabic.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople were very interested in learning more about the language,\u201d said Isma Zafar, who, as an artist, does a lot of paintings that revolve around Islamic art and calligraphy.<\/p>\n

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Mosque transparency:<\/strong> The performers of Salah (prayer) kneel in the prayer room of the Al-Salam Centre during tours. (Photo by Fernando Moreno-Prado\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe also share some interesting facts about how there are scientific miracles of the Quran that were revealed 1,400 years ago and more facts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The event was not a campaign to convert Calgarians to Islam but rather as a chance to talk and learn.<\/p>\n

“We want to be inviting,” Habib said. “We just want to show them that we are not hiding anything.”<\/p>\n

Guests observed the \u201cMusalleen\u201d (the performers of prayer) during their daily prayers in the Musalla (the main prayer hall).<\/p>\n

Ahmed gave a presentation with the use projected images in the Al-Salam Centre\u2019s gym on the history of Muslims in North America (stretching back to 1529), the strides made in women\u2019s rights and education (with the longest lasting university having been founded by a woman,) and the true meaning of Jihad among other things.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s really good in explaining every detail,\u201d said Marta Mykhailiv, who has come to Calgary from Ukraine. \u201cIt\u2019s really understandable for everyone no matter who you are.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a chance to learn what Muslims actually believe by addressing myths and facts. Such as that there is no one founder of the Islamic faith.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the teachings of Islam, there is no forced conversions,\u201d said Ahmed. \u201cIf someone is doing it they are going against the practices of the Quran.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calgary has a Muslim population of 95,925 which makes up seven per cent of the city\u2019s population according to the 2021 census.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Friendly sharing:<\/strong> ICNA (Islamic Circle of North America) member and organizer Basil Ahmad shows Jeremy Lehn the Quran with the original Arabic text during a tour of the mosque. (Photo by Fernando Moreno-Prado\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI am a neighbour of the mosque,\u201d said Robert Johnson who was reading a copy of an English-translated Quran. \u201cMy fianc\u00e9e is Muslim and I have taken steps to learn more about her beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other attendees came out of a sense of curiosity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been interested in Islam so when I got the invitation at my house last week, I thought this would be good time to find out what\u2019s happening here,\u201d said Reg Brehaut, who spent two years in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

People interested learning about Islam can reach out to GainPeace or if they are interested in visiting the mosque at the Al-Salam Centre can call 403-452-8861 or info@alsalamcentre.ca<\/a> to make an appointment.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur hope,” said ICNA member and organizer Basil Ahmad, “is that we can build bridges with the community,”<\/p>\n

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Language learning: <\/strong>Artist Isma Zafar holds a calligraphy booth on Meet Your Muslim Neighbour Open Mosque Day where guests can have their names spelt in Arabic and learn about the Quran at the Al-Salam Centre in Calgary on Sunday, Jan. 14, 2024. (Photo by Fernando Moreno-Prado\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Open Mosque welcomes people from the community to learn about the Islamic faith and address common misconceptions [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":874,"featured_media":73679,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S1 Open Mosque FM","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1782,483],"class_list":{"0":"post-73677","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-image","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-life","8":"tag-mosque","9":"tag-religion","10":"post_format-post-format-image"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/874"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73677"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74381,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73677\/revisions\/74381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}