A north Queensland man says he is grateful his neighbours invited him along to a mosque open day to learn more about their faith.
Colin Hofmeier prides himself on learning about other people's religions, and encourages others to do the same.
"We have a Muslim family who live next to us who we found are just beautiful people," he said.
"They extended an invitation to us and I was very quick to say yes because I like to pride myself on being open minded."
Mr Hofmeier and his wife Debra were among dozens of people who attended the open day in Mackay on Sunday.
"There are lots of people out on the streets who are very confused I suppose ... this is an opportunity to come along and say, 'This is what we've heard, can you tell me and put it in the right perspective?'" he said.
"My mind says they can't all be bad; there's a lot of bad Christians too
"
As part of the open day, information pamphlets were handed out to people interested in learning more about Islam.
Ready to provide further insight to those attending, Islamic Council of Queensland spokesman Ali Kadri attended the event and helped answer community members' questions.
"Sometimes people fear what they don't know," Mr Kadri said.
"The idea was to allow people to come to the mosque and talk to us, the Muslim community and the representatives of the Muslim community, and learn what Islam is about."
Asked about recent events overseas, Mr Kardi said he did not believe religion or God was to blame for what human beings had done in the name of God.
"It is an unfortunate fact that if a few priests do wrong things by children in a Catholic church, then people start blaming the church and God, and people start moving away from religion," he said.
"Let's stop blaming the systems and look at why people are doing these things and try and find solutions to these mistakes.
"I don't think we'll get there by taking extreme positions in any shape and form."
Islamic Society of Mackay secretary Imran Abdul Khaliq said there was a larger turnout to the open day this year in comparison to previous years.
"We've had open days before but not many people came, but I think people really came here to show they're concerned or want to know more, and they are generally interested in knowing what we practice and what we believe in," he said.
Mr Khaliq said there were about 200 people in the region who attended the mosque on a regular basis.
"We always have people coming in, and actually we have a lot of visitors who are backpackers who are travelling from Brisbane to Mackay, and they come from a different country and they see the mosque," he said.
Open day talks were followed by traditional food, prayer and henna painting activities.
source : hawzahnews
