A local mosque in Antioch, Nashville, Tennessee, is holding an open house this weekend for people of all faiths to help combat Muslim stereotypes and show people the true Muslims, WSMV.com reported.
“They hate what they are told to hate. If we only get a handful of people, we’ve changed at least the mindset and mentality, and show what our faith is all about, who we are,” said Anwar Arafat, the head Imam and Religious Director of the Islamic Center of Tennessee.
Though the open house is held for the fourth consecutive year, Arafat believes it has a more urgent tone this year.
Combating Hate
The purpose of the open house is to foster understanding in light of those back and forth tweet between President Donald Trump and four Democratic Congresswomen, two of whom are Muslims.
The Twitter war began when the President told the Congresswomen, who criticized President Trump’s immigration policy, to go back where they came from. Three of the women were born in the United States and a fourth is a naturalized citizen.
“To hear words like go back where you came from, in my case, that’s Salt Lake City, Utah, the President can say whatever he wants, the beauty of America is that we can differ with our elected officials, and still be American.”
The open house will be held at the Islamic Center of Tennessee, 5400 Bell Forge Lane, between 2 and 4 pm on Saturday, July 20.
Muslims across the world usually open the doors of their mosques to give a glimpse of their faith to the wider community.
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.
More mosques are expected to register for this year’s event, seeing growth from 200 mosques in 2018 and 150 mosques in 2017.
In Canada, the first-ever Visit My Mosque Day took place on October 2017.
Last October, some 100,000 non-Muslims visited more than 900 mosques across Germany.
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