They came to sample exotic food and maybe ride a camel, but stayed to learn about Islam and peek inside the imposing dome visible from I-75.
For years, the International Festival hosted by the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo in Perrysburg has been a late-summer staple, offering visitors dishes from at least a dozen countries — and carrots for the camels, alpacas, and goats on display at the petting zoo.
Visitors were also invited to tour the center, the largest mosque in the region and a spiritual home to 300 Muslim families from 23 countries. Many were learning about the world’s fastest growing religion — practiced by 1 percent of Ohio’s population — for the first time.
“We initially came for the food. It’s so spicy and fragrant,” said 53-year-old Jackie Petruney of Perrysburg. “I didn’t know much about Islam. I didn’t know they don’t do cremation. And the fasting — that’s a long time to fast. I have some friends who are Arabic but I didn’t feel comfortable asking them, so this was a perfect way to find out.”
GALLERY: 18th Annual International Festival
The tour groups were taken to the prayer space inside the dome. They were invited to take off their shoes and step onto the royal blue carpet where members pray in front of a minbar, the stairs where an imam stands to deliver a sermon. Beside it is a mihrab, a niche that indicates the direction of Mecca.
“It’s a sacred space, which means we put our head on the ground. It’s just clean. That’s why we take our shoes off,” said Dr. Faiza Husain, who led one of the tour groups.
Mary Jane Stradler, a 71-year-old from Perrysburg, kicked off her shoes and joined the afternoon prayer alongside the women, who practice across a divider from the men.
“I didn’t know what they were saying but I participated anyway,” she said. “I said my own prayer and followed what the ladies were doing.”
Dr. Husain, a 28-year-old physician from Maumee, described the five pillars of Islam: belief in one God, praying five times a day, fasting during the month of Ramadan, donating a portion of earnings to charity, and pilgrimage to Mecca.
“I try to keep it really general, really easy to understand. Nothing political. Many say they learned a lot or their misconceptions were cleared,” she said.
John Heacock, a 39-year-old visiting from Dallas, was surprised to learn “how many parallels there were as far as Christianity, and also that each mosque is its own separate entity.”
The Islamic Center of Greater Toledo is the biggest of 11 mosques in Toledo. It has been on Schneider Road since 1984, and has put on the festival for the past 18 years.
Sue Kaake, 49, volunteered in the kitchen, scooping balls of dough to make Lebanese saj, a flatbread cooked on a convex metal surface in front of visitors at the food tent.
“I love that everybody is working together,” she said. “I just wish everybody in the world would do that.”
Contact Liz Skalka at lskalka@theblade.com, 419-724-6199, or on Twitter @lizskalka.
First Published September 16, 2018, 10:30 p.m.
