Almost 3000 Copies of
the Holy Qur’an Distributed at LA Times Book Festival
Visitors
line up at the WhyIslam booth |
Armed
with copies of the Qur’an, information brochures and
gifts, trained WhyIslam volunteers engaged the visitors in
discussions and answered their questions at the LA Times Book
Festival for the second year in a row on April 29-30. The
WhyIslam information booths again surpassed all expectations.
This meant running out of all copies of the Qur’an on
the first day itself. The volunteers spent the rest of the
evening trying to arrange more copies from individuals, Islamic
Centers and book stores.
Despite setting up two booths this year, the volunteers found
themselves extremely busy throughout the two days with friendly
discussions and handing out material at the event that drew
127,000 visitors. There were several occasions when people
were lining up to pick their free material or to ask a question.
Movie producers, authors, poets, publishers, journalists,
actors, even Buddhist monks were all excited to discuss Islam
and everyone took home information that they could hardly
find in the media. People thanked the volunteers for giving
them not only the copy of the Qur’an but also the opportunity
to freely discuss issues on their mind, since no topic was
off limits.
For most it was the first such interaction with Muslims. 5-7
people expressed their desire to embrace Islam. "I am
so excited because this is the first time I am actually getting
a chance to a talk to a Muslim about their faith" said
Martha from Santa Monica. "Why don't you do this more
often?" asked Ben an American Israeli.
With over 2600 copies of the Qur’an and over 7000 brochures
distributed, these two days proved to be the busiest ever
for the 20 volunteers. Gifts included bookmarks that showed
a few quick tips on reading and handling the Qur’an.
The WhyIslam booths were probably the only booths among the
350 that did not have anything to sell. A project of the Islamic
Circle of North America (ICNA), WhyIslam is a nationwide network
of dawah volunteers who operate the Islamic information toll
free line 1-877-WhyIslam and the website whyislam.org which
connect volunteers with those seeking guided mosque tours,
1 on 1 email correspondence, and free literature among several
other outreach services.
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