David Proeber
The Pantagraph
Organizers of an open house at a Bloomington mosque have stopped taking reservations because of "overwhelming" response from people wanting to attend.
"We are overwhelmed," said Mohammed Zaman, president of Masjid Ibrahim, which has been serving the Twin City Muslim community since 2007. "We are astounded by the response from the community, the support."
The community's interest is prompting the mosque to hold another open mosque day at a future date to be determined.
"Because we are just starting to see the overwhelming response, we need to sit down and figure out another date," Zaman said Wednesday. "We definitely will keep everyone posted as soon we have that new date."
Residents wanting to attend the event from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday were asked to RSVP, and by Wednesday morning more than 200 people had responded, Zaman said.
But because of the mosque's size, attendance was limited to 100 people.
"We don't have a lot of room in the mosque," said Zaman. "It's not a very huge place, but we are trying our best to accommodate as many as possible."
The mosque already had 60 people signed up to attend the open house prior to a Pantagraph story on Tuesday about the event.
"The morning the story came out, within an hour we had 20 more people sign up," said Zaman.
At a Dec. 16 interfaith community solidarity event in Bloomington, spearheaded by Not In Our Town, Zaman promised to invite the public to an open mosque day.
More than 250 people attended the rally that was held to show support for the local Muslim community in response to anti-Islamic rhetoric that surfaced in the United States, especially after the terror attack in San Bernardino, Calif.
In return, local Muslims decided to open the mosque to the public for an event to show their hospitality and give non-Muslims an opportunity to better understand the Islamic faith.
"For us, we pray in the mosque without any chairs," said Zaman. "We sit on the carpeted floor, but for the guests coming in we are bringing in chairs so they will be comfortable.
"Although the space in the mosque is small, there is a lot of space in our hearts that we can open up."