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Full house for Mosque open house

Feb 26, 2017 | 4:50 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — The Medicine Hat Mosque opened its doors to the community today giving people a chance to learn more about Islam and what life is like as a Muslim.

It didn’t take long for the small building to fill up with around a hundred people.

“It’s really amazing, I never thought we’re going to get that many people, it’s just amazing.” said practicing Muslim Azita Aflatouni.

It’s the first time the Mosque has held an open house for the community and Imam Emad Salih said he wanted to help shed stereotypes of the religion.

“We feel the media has been unfair to Muslims in general, by portraying basically the weirdos and outcasts and the extremists as a representative of Muslims,” he said. “We feel this is wrong and it affects the general public in Western countries views of Muslims.”

The open house set up booths with information on different aspects of Islam and Muslim culture with members of the Mosque standing by to answer questions. They also hosted an open question and answer to address more questions.

“Islam basically means, this word itself in Arab means peace, it also means submission to God,” explained Salih.

Aflatouni admitted that a common misconception about her religion is that women are oppressed but said this is not the case.

“It is protection, ladies that they wear it, and I talk to them, they think it’s some sort of modesty and protects them from unwanted attention,” she said about the hijab.

Aflatouni herself only wears the hijab while at the Mosque and not when she’s out at home or working.

“I’m not at the point where I’m going to put it on, I haven’t got there, in my opinion it’s not mandatory, it’s preferable,” Aflatouni explained. She added that often women start to wear the hijab after maturing, but each person makes their own choice and the hijab itself means something different for everyone.

Those who attended the open house said they wanted a chance to learn something new and show support for others in the community.

“We are very grateful to the public that they received our invitation with welcome and they have not given in to the negative impression,” said Salih.