Mosque opens doors to neighbors with questions

Lynchburg’s first mosque held an open house Saturday, drawing a crowd of nearly 100 visitors over the four-plus hours that members of the Greater Lynchburg Islamic Association were on hand.

Attendees removed their shoes in an outside hallway as they entered the mosque, then toured the building and participated in extended question and answer sessions with mosque members.

The unassuming house, off of Airport Road in Campbell County, has served as a gathering and prayer center for area Muslims since the beginning of the year.

Maqsud Ahmad, the group’s president, said the event served mainly as a way for community members, who had questions or concerns about Islam and its adherents, to get some information and hopefully gain perspective.

“I think people are pretty much happy, they cleared up their few things,” Ahmad said after a few groups had already come through.

Ahmad said he was encouraged by the turnout because it seemed many of the people coming through were sincere and really wanted to clear up misconceptions about Islam.

Ahmad drew particular attention to what he said is a media-fueled misconception that all Muslims are violent or that Muslims agree with incidents like Thursday’s shooting in Fort Hood, Texas, a crime alleged to have been perpetrated by a Muslim.

“That is not justified,” he said, emphasizing to each question and answer group that the GLIA did not condone the act and that it was not representative of Muslims in general.

Ahmad said that despite all the negative press Islam is getting, the mosque has not received any threats or had any indication of repercussions from the incident.

Melissa Hight Boughmmi, 38, attends the mosque, and though she moved to the area most recently from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., she said she was born and raised in Lynchburg and attended Thomas Road Baptist Church before she moved.

“Growing up in Lynchburg, I never met a Muslim,” she said.

Then, while in Florida, Boughmmi met and married a Muslim man.

She said she took her shahada, or Muslim declaration of faith, six years ago and hasn’t looked back.

“I’ve always wanted to have that feeling of faith that people have,” she said, noting that at different times she attended Jewish, Jehovah’s Witness and Catholic services.

“When I went to the Mosque,” she said, “I felt that.”

She said she’s received her share of quizzical looks, especially when she’s in public wearing her hijab, a scarf that covers the head and shoulders, leaving only the face exposed.

“I had someone ask me in a takeout line, ‘which wife are you,’” she said, adding “that’s not normal.”

Chè Orman, 27, said in her time in Liberty University’s undergraduate program, she has traveled and made friends with multiple Muslim women and girls, both stateside and abroad.

“For me, understanding religions has become really important,” she said.

Despite her Christian convictions, Orman said, “it always helps to have an understanding of where other people are coming from,” adding, “I see them as people, just as I would see anyone else, not as a Muslim.”

Orman said she was glad the mosque opened its doors to Liberty students Saturday, and said the questions she brought were not intended to antagonize, but more to open a line of honest communication.

“Me sitting in there debating with them about things that no one can really and truly explain is not going to get anyone anywhere,” she said, “but having a relationship and trying to understand someone … I think that’s the example that we have in Christ.”

Ahmad echoed those sentiments, from the other side of the aisle.

“We are just like you, and we want to live in harmony with you,” he said, speaking to the community as a whole.

“We want to give you respect. Give us respect the same way.”