Report by Mirza Mashood

Interfaith meetings are always good – they promote better understanding & remove many misconceptions against each other.

-Imam shamshad

An interfaith program held in west Chicago area Mosque, Bait-ul-Jaamay in Glen Elyn, IL. on Sep.26 from 5.15 pm to 7.15 pm.

The program was organized per request of Pastor David Russell of Little Home Church in Wayne, IL who himself showed great interest in visiting the Mosque with his congregation members. Pastor David and his group are very keen to learn more and more about Islam. They believe in interfaith dialogue and bridging the gaps between the communities of other faiths and religions.

Pastor David visited our Mosque first time in Ramadhan this year with some friends when Imam Syed Shamshad Ahmad Nasir invited him to come and experience the Iftar gathering and witness our Mosque’s atmosphere. David pastor really enjoyed being with us and later on he expressed his desire to visit our mosque again with some of his members of congregation so that they can learn more about our community and Islam.

On Sep. 26 Pastor David Russell arrived with his members of congregation right after Asar prayer which was at 5.00 pm,

From 5.15 PM to 6.00 PM everybody enjoyed supper and mingled around and thenthe program started with the recitation of Holy Quran by Kamran Khan (the leader of youth activities) who recited Surat-ul-Fatiha with translation. Then a church member Ms. Anne read some prayers from Holy bible.

Afterward Imam Shamshad welcomed the guests and briefly introduced about The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and shed some light on the background of this event for the audience, he said that this kind of interfaith meetings will remove misconception and will bring people together and with this our society will be healthy and peaceful one.

Next to it, Pastor David presented the basic introduction of Christianity its believes and practices with a brief overview of some prominent sects of Christianity and he explained how his church is different from the others.

Then the forum was opened to the audience for the question and answer session.

People from both sides anxiously took part in the question answer session and they asked many questions while both the Pastor David and Imam Shamshad provided the answer very diligently.

Imam Shamshad presenting the book “Pathway to Peace” by his-holiness Mirza Masroor Ahmad to Pastor David

Towards answering a question about the Ahmadiyya Community’s efforts towards peace Imam Shamshad presented the book “Pathway to Peace” by his-holiness Mirza Masroor Ahmad to the Pastor David

At last Dr. Nadeem the vice president of Chicago Northwest Chapter presented the concluding remarks in which he greatly appreciated the initiative taken by Pastor David Russell to come our Mosque and not only provided us a chance to host them but he also provided a chance to his people to know more about Islam.

The program was concluded at silent congregational prayer lead by Imam around 7.15 pm.

After the silent prayer Maghrib & Isha prayers were offered which were observed by the members of church while sitting behind on the chairs. They were provided copies of Muslim Pryer book so that they should know what kind of prayers Muslim observed 5 times a day.

That’s how, by the Grace of Allah, the program ended very successfully at 8.00 pm.