The Islamic Center of Fort Collins (ICFC) will host an open house discussion on Sunday, March 12 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
According to the Center’s Facebook page, the goal is to “welcome and thank the many supporters of freedom of religion in America and to ensure that all of our neighbors are treated fairly.”
“Love your neighbor as yourself” is the title of the discussion.
“We would like to introduce our religion Islam to all of you in an unbiased matter,” according to the ICFC website.
The website describes that Islam is not a new religion, and that true Muslims follow a religion of peace, mercy and forgiveness. Further, it is described that most Muslims are “peace-loving individuals” who condemn those that misinterpret Islamic teachings.
According to their website, the ICFC exists to serve, guide, and support the community.
“The main goal is to thank many of the supporters of freedom of religion,” wrote Shehab Elhaddad, a member of ICFC, in an email to the Collegian about the event. “And, to answer any questions the community has.”
The event comes after President Donald Trump’s new revised executive order on immigration.
According to the Washington Post, the new order will ban travelers from six different Muslim-majority countries from getting new visas. Elhaddad thinks this event can help bring people together after the order.
“The ICFC had an event for Poudre District staff on the weekend following the election,” Elhaddad wrote. “It turned into one of the biggest open houses because a lot of people came to show support before any action was even taken by President Trump.”
People brought flowers, letters of support, and chalk drawings to the Center.
“I feel like this is going to be a really important topic during the discussion,” Elhaddad wrote.
A quote from Revered Hal Chorpenning, a senior minister of Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ is posted on the event’s Facebook page, stating, “God calls us to stand against injustice and to stand up with compassion and love.”
The event will take place at the Islamic Center of Fort Collins, located at 925 West Lake Street. Food and parking will be available at the event, and anyone is invited to attend.
Collegian reporter Jenn Yingling can be reached at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @jenn_yingling.
Richrblake • May 15, 2017 at 3:12 pm
The theology of Islamic terrorists and mainstream Islamic theology are one and the same. Islamic open houses are pure propaganda operations where trained Dawees (Islamic missionaries) misrepresent the incredible evil and death that Islam has caused over the centuries. True, there are both peaceful as well as not so peaceful Suras in the Koran and the Dawees will tell you the peaceful ones. What they will not tell you is that the peaceful verses were written when Mohammed was trying to convert the Meccans. When the Meccans got tired of him and he and his followers had to flee to Medina, it became all about conquest and tyranny. Since the Medinan verses were written later, Islamic scholars say that those verses abrogate the earlier peaceful ones. Consider that Al Baghdadi, the head of ISIS is an Islamic scholar. A logical question to ask the Dawees would be what is it in Islam that causes so many to so radically misinterpret Islam?