What do Jews, Christians and Muslims have in common?
According to the All Dulles Area Muslims Society’s president Rizwan Jaka, a lot.
The ADAMS Center held a Passover seder for 30 area Jews, Christians and Muslims at the mosque in Sterling.
"It was a historical event," Jaka said. "For the first time, a seder was held in a mosque on Easter."
Members of the ADAMS Center, Washington Area Jews for Jewish-Muslim Understanding, the United Christian Parish and the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington, an interfaith group, attended the three-hour seder, complete with a seder plate, grape juice and readings from the Haggadah, which contains the order of the Passover seder and tells the story of the Jewish liberation from slavery in Egypt.
"The event was symbolic of interfaith dialogue and working together," Jaka said.
During Passover, Jews celebrate God saving Moses and his people from slavery in Egypt. Similarly, Muslims fast on the 10th day of Muharram, the first month of the Muslim calendar, which occurred Feb. 9, in commemoration of God freeing his prophet Moses and his people from slavery.
"We commemorate the same event at a different time with our own traditions, by fasting," Jaka said.
During the seder, ADAMS Center Imam Mohamed Magid read about Moses in the Koran. The Washington Area Jews for Jewish-Muslim Understanding’s Andrea Barron read about Moses from the Hebrew Bible.
Barron, one of the seder organizers, said in an e-mail she hoped the seder would help erase negative stereotypes Jews and Muslims have toward each other.