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Seattle Muslims Celebrate New Mosque in Interfaith Event

The Islamic Society of Seattle (Husaynia) has welcomed members of the community in an interfaith event to celebrate their new mosque in Snohomish.

Sheriff Adam Fortney and Shaykh Rasoul Naghavi were among a wide range of political and religious figures invited to an `Eid Al-Adha celebration on Saturday.

“Sometimes, you forget to see the beauty that is all around us,” Naghavi said, with a view of the Cascades behind him, The Herald reported.

“I can see God easily through his work.”

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Attendance enjoyed all kinds of food, a bouncy house, ice cream truck, balloon animals and other common fair offerings.

“This is the fun stuff,” Snohomish County Sheriff Adam Fortney said, sitting with his wife Jill and others from the sheriff’s office.

“We’re all just human beings getting to know each other. That, and the food is awesome.”

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Other attendees included state Rep. Shelley Kloba, D-Kirkland, and members of Snohomish’s First Presbyterian Church.

“We all worship the same God,” Pat Sanvik, who serves on the church’s council, said.

Masood Zaidi, the society’s vice president, said that reception from neighbors has mostly been positive.

“It’s mostly because they don’t know us,” Zaidi said. “I was reading one letter and burst out laughing. They have no concept of who we are.”

`Eid Al-Adha, or “Feast of Sacrifice”, is one of the two most important Islamic celebrations, together with `Eid Al-Fitr.

Muslims worldwide celebrated `Eid Al-Adha on Tuesday, July 20.

There aren’t precise numbers on how many Muslims live in Washington.

Pew Research Center estimated it was less than 1 percent of the state’s population in 2014 (less than roughly 70,000), but the research firm Dinar Standard estimated 80,000-100,000 around the same time.