The open house was planned for this Saturday before Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan by US troops. But his death changed the focus of the event and strengthened its meaning, said Imam Abdul Malik, the mosque's outreach director.

"It's time for us to move on. And to do that, we need to get to know one another better," said Abdul Malik at the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia.

He said the open house provided an opportunity to answer questions that may have cropped up in people's minds after the news of Bin Laden's death. Such as: "What is it like, what do Muslims believe, what are they thinking now?" he said.

"There are individuals in the community still reticent about even visiting a mosque," said Abdul Malik, adding their goal was that people who stopped by would be able to say: "'I now know Islam, I know what it is, and it's not Bin Laden.'

"There are those who use hate speech and who would like us to stay apart, but we're not going to do that. We're going to be together as one community in this period beyond Bin Laden and the other hate-preachers," said Abdul Malik.

"We've have a long relationship with Dar Al-Hijrah," said Michael McGee of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Arlington, Va., and who promoted the event on his church's website.

"Our relationship started after 9/11 when some of the imams came over to see us following the attacks. We've had a number of meetings together, and we know they've been in a very difficult situation for them since 9/11.

McGee said they've had to deal with a lot of prejudice and ignorance about their religion.

"We believe that Islam is a great religion and that it captures the love and compassion that all the major religions try to express. We try to live out that compassion in our religious lives, and we support all those who do."

"We've had a very beneficial relationship with the mosque," said McGee. "We've tried to support them, and they've tried to teach us about their religion, so that we have a better understanding of Islam, and the deep and profound beliefs of Islam. It's been good for both of us. There have been other churches, too, that have had a close relationship with the mosque; it's not just us.

"We're working together on immigration, health care, and we're all trying to live out our compassion, which is at the heart of our faiths," said McGee.

Tahir Amin Kayum believes it is important for Muslims to interact with people of other faiths.

"Right now a lot of people are not familiar with Islam," he said. "Or they don't know Muslims, and if they know Muslims they don't know that they know they're Muslim. So what they see and what they hear about Muslims is what they hear on television, which, we know a lot of times, can be misconceptions."

Abdul Malik said the open house was organized around being a day of dialogue, poetry, film, prayer and food presented as "a taste of Islam, food from different countries."

"It was really a cultural and spiritual and enriching afternoon," he added.

"We seized upon the opportunity of the concerns that many Americans have about their American Muslim community and their reaction to the death of Bin Laden. We decided that the best way to move from revenge to reconciliation was to open the doors of the mosque and to invite our neighbors inside to talk about - not who we aren't, but who we are," said Abdul Malik.

"And so we had an opportunity for our guests to have an audience with various scholars thought-out the day. The event was attended by hundreds of Muslims and about 500 from the community," adding that one of the most popular events was an Arab-style tent that was set up within the mosque "in an area for ladies to have henna and a sweet mint tea, it was a big hit."

Local officials, including Virginia Congressman Jim Moran, also attended the outreach event, as well as various faith leaders from the community.

The mosque was founded in 1982 by a group of mostly Arab university students, and it is one of the first mosques to be established in Northern Virginia, near Washington, DC. It is also one of the area's largest mosques.