Mosque's Barbecue Calls Faiths of Seattle Together

August 13, 2007

Author: CHERIE BLACK

Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/327361_mosque13.html

They sat next to each other in the Sunday sunshine chatting. Smiling and gesturing, they looked like familiar friends sharing familiar stories. But the two women -- one with her head and body wrapped in cloth, the other blond and wearing a floral dress -- were strangers until that afternoon. They met at the annual community barbecue at the Idriss Mosque in Northgate, where all faiths are invited to eat, socialize and get to know one another.

"One of the nicest things we can do is sit together and accept each other," said Aisha Alzaarir, one of the two women talking Sunday afternoon. She was raised a Mormon and became a Muslim in 2001.

See also: Interfaith, Civic