ONTARIO – A new campaign inviting people to share coffee and talk about Islam with Muslims is proving successful across Canada, with many non-Muslims welcoming the positive initiative in its latest stop at Peterborough, Ontario.

“We are shocked – it’s surprising,” Jari Qudrat, one of the managers of the campaign, told The Peterborough Examiner on Friday, January 6.

“We’re super-ecstatic to see where this goes.”

Qudrat was talking about a new nationwide campaign that invites people who are unfamiliar with Islam to have coffee with a Muslim has come to Peterborough.

A meeting up for the initiative, called Coffee & Islam, is taking place Friday from 7 to 9 pm at Caffeina Espresso Bar on Hunter St. W.

Within 24 hours of posting notice of the meet-up at Caffeina in Peterborough, Qudrat said he heard from roughly 50 people interested in attending.

Though living in Toronto, Qudrat meetups are already happening in more than a dozen cities across Canada, from Vancouver to Toronto to St. John’s.

Seeing a lot of interest in Islam in Peterborough, Qudrat is planning more meet-ups in Peterborough over the next three months.

“We launched this campaign to promote understanding – Islam literally means peace,” Qudrat said.

“It boils down to service to God and service to mankind.”