Did you visit a mosque recently?

In the UK, Muslims organized an Open Mosque Day during the month of February 2016.

A number of mosques from all over the UK participated in this initiative, including mosques in London, Birmingham and other cities.

More than 100 UK Mosques opened their doors to invite non-Muslims to tour their premises and meet with their Muslim neighbors.

This initiative is part of an annual campaign to counter false perceptions about Islam.

The ‘Visit My Mosque Day’ seeks to educate the public about the faith beyond the media’s hostile narrative. The initiative comes amid a rise in Islamophobia and anti-Muslim attacks in Britain.

In Peterborough, Masjid Khadijah was one of the mosques that took part in this initiative.

You can find some highlights of the day and some feedback received by some of the visitors in this video here.

Sister Ameena Blake gave this interesting talk on that day where she welcomed all visitors and thanked them for dropping in on a Sunday evening.

She started by explaining the meaning of the greeting of peace, and talked about God’s Mercy.

Amazing Story

She then went on to tell a very interesting story that happened to her husband while he was studying for his degree in San Francisco.

He used to go to one of the local mosques, and one day he was sitting down after finishing the prayer and this American guy walks in, a blonde hair blue eyed non-Muslim man.

He said: “Are you OK? Do you need to speak to anyone? Can I help you in any way?”

And the man says: “No, I’ve just come in, kind of looking around.”

So her husband leaves the mosque, and comes back later for the next prayer, and he comes in and the man is still there, and he is praying.

Her husband looks at him, and says after he finishes praying:

“Wow – I didn’t realize you were a Muslim?”

And the man says:

“No, I wasn’t.”

“So what happened between the last prayer and this prayer that you suddenly decided that you would become a Muslim?” the husband asked.

He said:

“Well, when I woke up this morning, I said I believe in God.

I said to God, God show me peace.”

And he got dressed and went out.

There was a bird when he went outside his house, and a bird is like a symbol of peace, so he said I’m just going to follow the bird.

So he follows the bird.

And the bird is going from tree to tree, and eventually the bird sits on the top of the minaret of the mosque.

And so the guy thinks, OK I’m just going to go in. Maybe I’ll find peace in here.

And when he went in, he went through the journey asking questions, and felt such peacefulness that he decided to embrace Islam on the spot.

Don’t miss this interesting thirty minute talk by sister Ameena.