An open house.

January 9th, Saturday the Masjid Mahmood Mosque of Smyrna Tennessee had an open house for the community. The Mosque is housed in the building that once housed the Risen Life Fellowship on Maple Street. The Masjid Mahmood Mosque is part of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. This reform movement in the Muslim religion started in India near the end of the 19th century.

The open house started at 11am and after a meet and great we enjoyed a nice talk by Imam Azhar Hanif Sahib from St. Louis. He spoke of the issues of being Muslim in the world today and specifically of being one in America. The speaker spoke to the guests as if to calm any worries about the new neighbors in our midst. He spoke of the Ahmadi‘s communities view of Jihad as a struggle to improve one’s self, to fight against the desires of man and was not associated with the Muslims normally seen on CNN an Headline news.

I leaned and whispered to my wife that the speaker was “preaching to the choir”. I suspected that people who would dress nice and go to an open house would not have such a negative view of the Muslim community to start with and would understand that the extreme minority does not represent the majority.

We then had a question and answer period that addressed questions on the perception of Muslims, my question on if as a reform community do they still ascribe to the tradition 5 pillars of Islam, and to other subjects.

At about 1 we broke for Lunch. Indian cuisine was the main course and all I could identify was a chicken dish and a rice dish, the name of the other dishes eluded me, but were all flavorful and spicy. I do wish I knew how to make that flat bread they had piles of.

All in all I enjoyed their open house and am glad they chose our town to create a center in. Smyrna for all it is, is sadly lacking in diversity. While the smattering of Spanish language signs might seem too diverse to some, I wish a more flavorful existence. This is a welcome step in that process.