PUNE: Many non-Muslims visited Azam Campus Mosque in Camp, Pune on Saturday to gain an insight on Islam as a religion and its rituals. The visitors were given a tour of the mosque and their doubts were cleared by the members of Islamic Information Centre.
The open day has been organised on December 15 and 16 from 10.30 am to 2.00 pm.“This is for the first time that Islamic Information Centre has organised open day in the city. Such type of open days are being organised in the US and UK since 2016. Various other organisations have conducted open days across Maharashtra. We have received a great response,” said Shaikh Karimuddin, President of the Islamic Information Centre.
“The main motive behind organising this open day was to invite non-Muslim people to mosques, the same way they would visit a dargah. Unfortunately in our country, not many people are aware of the beauty of this religion. We want to educate people about what Islam really is and the rituals we follow,” Karimuddin added.
A member from the Islamic Information Centre, Mujahid Siddique said, “People have lots of doubts related to Islam and they don’t know where they can clarify the doubts. General doubts that people have are ‘How often is namaz offered?’, ‘Does Islam have a statue of deity?’, ‘What is Mecca and Kaaba?’, ‘What does the Quran teach us?’, ‘Are women allowed inside the mosque?’.” Siddique shared that this initiative will help people to clarify their doubts.
“Our colleague Mushtaq Asar is educating the visitors about the rituals performed before the namaz, how namaz is performed and how the namaz timings are decided. Many people don’t know that all Muslims perform namaz in the direction of Kaaba, the building at the centre of our most important mosque in Mecca. We educate them about our religion,” added Siddique.
A visitor Sandeep Pawar, who had come from Vishrantwadi, said “I have come here with my son to educate him about Islam. I myself got to learn a lot. I didn’t know about the rituals to be performed before offering namaz and how it is offered. Mushtaq Asar explained everything very well. I had some doubts whether women are allowed inside a mosque but every doubt was cleared by Asar sahab.”
Another visitor, Revati Joshi, from Karve Nagar said, “I came to know about the open day through my collegue. I just had to come here with my daughter. My daughter didn’t know anything about Islam. I hope she has learnt a thing or two.”
Upon being asked about future plans, Karimuddin said, “We are planning to reach a wider population. We will approach several mosques and if we get permission,we will be happy to organise such open days frequently.”
