Berlin Mosque opens its doors to public

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.

Sunday 30 Aug 2015 - 11:12 Makkah mean time-15-11-1436 Members of the community listen as Mark Minor speaks of his Islamic journey during the Berlin Mosque's open house. ( Image from The Berlin Citizen) Berlin, (IINA) - The mosque of the Islamic Association of Greater Hartford in Berlin opened its doors to the public. Visitors at the town mosque were welcomed with the Islamic greeting, (meaning “the peace of Allah be upon you”), during the open house organized earlier this month, Meriden Record-Journal reported. “One of the things I often say is that, as Muslims, we have to spend less time talking about what we’re not and more time talking about what we are about,” said Imam Refai Arefin, one of the presenters of the event. The program began with a tour of the mosque, located at 1781 Wilbur Cross Highway, followed by a brief overview of the articles of faith and Five Pillars of Islam: Shahada (faith), Salat (prayer), Zakat (alms), Sawm (fasting) and Hajj (pilgrimage to Makkah). Attendants also witnessed a recitation of the Qur’an, the holy book of Islam, as well as presentations from members of the mosque on different topics in Islam that have become misconstrued in modern society. “I think I was getting really sick and tired of the media putting down some beliefs and kind of bashing them,” said Candi Gilbert, a member of the Berlin community who visited the mosque. “And I’d read The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns (written by Khaled Hosseini, a Muslim author) and thought ‘the Islamic religion is really quite beautiful, quite lovely.” “I feel very comfortable. I want to learn the Qur’an by myself. I’m going to start classes once a week at the mosque, and just spread the word,” Gilbert said. “I came here on my own; no one told me to come here, I chose to come. It was welcoming, it was warm, it was friendly, and it was gracious.” SM/IINA