WAMU 88.5 : News

Filed Under:

Northern Va. Mosque Holds 'Know Your Neighbor' Open House

By: Jonathan Wilson // May 7, 2011
Play associated audio
comments
Imam Johari Abdul-Malik says Osama bin Laden's death provides an opportunity for community and interfaith dialogue.
Jonathan Wilson
Imam Johari Abdul-Malik says Osama bin Laden's death provides an opportunity for community and interfaith dialogue.

Imam Johari Abdul-Malik is the outreach coordinator at Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Va., a mosque with a congregation of more than 3000 people.

He says today's open house is an opportunity to answer questions that may have cropped up in people's minds after the news of Osama Bin Laden's death.

"What is it like, what do Muslims believe, what are they thinking now?" he says.

Abdul-Malik says he knows there are individuals in the community still reticent about even visiting a mosque. But he says even if they don't stop by Dar al-Hijrah today, this week has given him hope.

I believe in the future that person will wind up even for us saying, 'I don't necessarily like Islam, but I know what it is. And it's not bin Laden.'

Today's open house will feature short films, a 'Taste of Islam' food bazaar, and question-and-answer sessions with Muslim scholars.

The open house runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Arts & Culture

NPR

Book News: J.K. Rowling Tells 'Harry Potter' Backstories

Quidditch was invented "in a small hotel in Manchester after a row with my then boyfriend," writes the Harry Potter creator. Other book news: Ireland puts an entire short story on a postage stamp; Daniel Handler on Midwestern literature; and the best books coming out this week.

Food

NPR

Giant Renaissance Food People Descend Upon New York

Giuseppe Arcimboldo was a 16th-century artist who liked to play with his food, transforming it into the building blocks of many of his fantastical portraits. Artist Philip Haas has taken those portraits out of museums, reinterpreting them as colossal statues that interact with the natural environment.

Politics

NPR

Is There Really A Second-Term Curse?

Whether it's President Richard Nixon's resignation or President Bill Clinton's impeachment, presidents tend to have a tough time during the back half of an eight-year presidency.

Technology

NPR

Young Kenyans Build Mobile Apps For Local Use

College students and recent graduates crammed the top floor of a tech hub in Nairobi for a competition built around the theme "Solutions for the Next Billion Mobile Users." Africa has more than 600 million mobile phone users (approximately 11 percent of the global total) – and the number is growing.

Leave a Comment

Help keep the conversation civil. Please refer to our Terms of Use and Code of Conduct before posting your comments.