Canada: Muslim community in Sydney hosts open house

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"We're pleased with the turnout. It's wonderful to see people have a lot of questions on their minds."

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | AU Desk
Source/Credit: Cape Breton Post
By Ken MacLeod | December 8, 2015

SYDNEY — They may not have drawn an overflow crowd, but the hosts of an open house to educate non-Muslims on Islam were encouraged by the interest shown by those who came to hear their message at the McConnell Memorial Library on Monday.

"We're pleased with the turnout," said Umran Bhatti, imam of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community for the Atlantic region, serving the Islamic communities in Sydney, Halifax and St. John's. "It's wonderful to see people have a lot of questions on their minds."

The two-hour open house, the first in a series the Ahmadiyya Muslim community plans to host in Cape Breton communities over the next few months, saw about  25 people at a time reading nine educational panels about Islam and the Prophet Muhammed that had been set up around the room, followed by a question and answer session led by Bhatti.

Howie Centre residents Murdoch and Lynn Moore were typical of the mostly middle-aged crowd that took in the event — like most, they came because they were interested in learning more about Islam.

"Better education and understanding is always good," said Lynn Moore, "because we can't be frightened of the things we know."

Murdoch Moore believes that with religion being such an important part of many Cape Bretoners' daily lives, it only makes sense to learn more about the Muslim community.

"By interacting, I'm hoping to make them more a part of the community," he said. "It's up to people like us to make them more welcome. Hopefully, through interacting, we can build a stronger faith community."

Dr. Hammad Asim, a urologist with the Cape Breton District Health Authority, helped host the open house.

"There are a lot of non-Muslims here, which is good to see," he said. "We can learn from each other, and then we can learn what we have in common. We want people to see Islam for itself, not how people twist it in the wrong direction."

The next one open house set for the Royal Canadian Legion branch 15 in New Waterford, Dec. 17 from 4-8 p.m.

The open houses are in response to anti-Islamic sentiment that has arisen around the country since the Paris massacres attributed to ISIS radicals in November. Since the attacks, which left 129 dead, Muslims in other parts of the country have been been the victims of violence.

Here in Cape Breton, Bhatti told the Cape Breton Post that he himself was confronted by a bigot last month who called him a terrorist and told him to "go back to your own country" as he manned a table at a Sydney flea market on behalf of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community.

kmacleod@cbpost.com


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Ahmadiyya Times note: Some comments previous appended to this story were erroneous and have been removed after correct information emerged. We apologize for the error and inconvenience it may have caused for the readers.  

* Sydney is a city in Nova Scotia, Canada



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