An Islamic center in Willowbrook, Illinois opened its doors recently to build bridges among faiths in the community, Chicago Tribune reported.

“We believe the best way to understand each other and work with each other is to listen to each other,” said Hassan Aly, the imam and religious director of the Mecca Center in Willowbrook.

“Misunderstanding happens when we read or hear about each other, instead of talking to each other.”

Along with tours inside the mosque, guests had free henna tattoos and their name written in Arabic.

Visiting the mosque, Danielle and Paolo Cairoli of Crystal Lake and their children enjoyed the free activities.

Danielle Cairoli is involved in an interfaith initiative in McHenry County organized by the Resurrection Catholic Church in Woodstock, the American Muslim Community Organization in Lake in the Hills and Ridgefield-Crystal Lake Presbyterian Church.

“This is a learning opportunity for me,” Cairoli said.

“The purpose of the initiative is to build friendship and bridges between the different communities and educate each other about the different faiths.”

Earlier this month, Muslims in Peoria, Illinois opened their mosque doors for a special event dubbed “Lunch with Your Neighbors”.

Open Mosque Days

Muslims across the world usually open doors of their mosques to guests to enable them to have a glimpse of their faith and proper understanding of its teachings.

For example, Visit My Mosque Day is held annually in a number of countries including Australia, the United Kingdom, Norway, and France.

In the UK, it first began in February 2015, with around 20 mosques taking part.

About 250 mosques participated in this year’s event held last February, seeing growth from 200 mosques in 2018 and 150 mosques in 2017.

In Canada, the first-ever Visit My Mosque Day took place in October 2017.

In October 2017, some 100,000 non-Muslims visited more than 900 mosques across Germany.