Ask-about-Islam bike riders to roll into town Thursday

Group riding across Canada invites questions about faith

Everything you wanted to know about Islam, but perhaps didn’t know who to ask, could be revealed Thursday in Kelowna.

Members of cross-country bike ride called Ask Islam will be in the downtown area between noon and 3 p.m.

“Anything anybody wants to ask us about our faith, we are happy to answer,” ride spokesman Muhammad Salman Khan said Monday from just outside Hope.

“We are just normal, everyday Canadians who want to share information about our faith,” said Khan, a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association.

He and other ride participants are biking across Canada to celebrate the country’s 150th anniversary and to counter what he says is the often-inaccurate portrayal of Muslims and Islam in the media.

At stops along the way, Khan and the others will engage locals on whatever Islam-related topics people might care to discuss.

“We want to meet and talk with as many people as we can,” he said.

The ride started in Delta on Saturday. So far, Khan said, he’s encountered a generally friendly response.

“The reception has been very nice, with people I think very happy to see us,” he said.

“Some people have asked if we want to impose Sharia law, but no one has been extremely rude or shown a very negative view of Islam,” he said.

“Along the way, I expect there might be some people we meet with anti-Islam attitudes, and maybe some very intensive conversations, but I don’t think there’ll be anything too rowdy,” he said.

In the 2011 census, 54 per cent of the Kelowna area’s population identified themselves as Christian and 43 per cent said they had no religious affiliation. Only 555 people, or less than one-half of one per cent, self-identified as being Muslim.