Spanning 50 cities, from New York to San Diego, the first official #MeetAMuslim Day occurred last Saturday with the goal for open dialogue between non-Muslims and their local Muslim community. Sponsored by Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association (AMYA), hundreds of Muslims participated by holding up signs in public spaces that read: “I’m a Muslim, ask me anything” in order to encourage dialogue.
“Pew reported that 62% of Americans have never met a Muslim. So when the only source of material for your knowledge of Islam and Muslim comes from television images and headlines, that’s obviously concerning,” says Dr. Bilal Rana, President of AMYA. “We will be teaching the public that terrorism, and in fact all kinds of abuses, are foreign concepts to Islam in this campaign.”
NBC News reports: “AMYA states that a large majority of the questions revolve around the concept of jihad, whether Islam promotes violence, the definition of Sharia law, and how Muslims respond to President Donald Trump’s recent policies.”
