Muslims visiting the Museum of the Bible

A Washington, D.C. Muslim leader is encouraging other Muslims to visit the Museum of the Bible in in the nation’s capital.

The imam is just one of many different types of people and religions that are visiting the museum and learning from its exhibits.

Museum president Cary Summers told media last week that the imam visited the museum with his family and later told Summers what he thought of the facility.

“We had one of the imams from one of the mosques in Washington come and spend three hours [at the museum]; he brought his wife and five daughters,” Summers said. “He saw me a week later and he told me that he had been there, which I knew, and I asked, ‘What did you think?’ And he said, ‘I’m telling you, every Muslim, they should come to this museum.’”

Summers said that since the museum opened in November 2017, the facility has had more than 340,000 visitors.

“Who’s coming to the museum? The world is coming in. It’s not all Christians, but people from all over the world,” he said.

A note from a visitor, which was passed on to Summers stated, ‘While we were there, on our right side were Orthodox Jews walking with us, and on our left side was confessing agnostics. And they were all loving the museum,'” Summers said of the note.

The museum is not an exploration of different faith traditions but rather keeps the focus on the book itself. There are two references to Islam, in a plaque that says the Bible and Quran do not share any text but contain many references to the same events and people, and in a Hebrew Bible section that includes mention of both Isaac and Ishmael.

The museum boasts 430,000 square feet of artifacts, information and interactive displays about the Bible. Among its collection, the museum has a replica of the Gutenburg Press, first editions of the King James Bible and fragments of the Dead Sea Scroll.

Admission to the museum is free but there is a suggested donation amount.