At Mosques, Inviting Non-Muslims Inside to Ease Hostility Toward Islam

October 22, 2010

Author: Kirk Semple

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/23/nyregion/23mosques.html?ref=religion_and_belief

Brother Abdullah was working the sidewalk outside the Omar Ben Abdel-Aziz Mosque in Jamaica, Queens, on Friday, looking for the curious, fearful, idle and confused.

 

It was an hour into a two-hour open house intended to dispel ignorance and promote neighborliness and interfaith harmony. But only four guests, all Muslim, had showed up at the mosque, and all the passers-by he had stopped had said they had somewhere else to go.