Canberra Islamic Centre opens its doors as part of National Day of Unity

The day of unity incorporated the National Mosque Open Day and Walk Together events to celebrate diversity, encourage mutual respect and foster positive relationships between people of all faiths and backgrounds.

The Canberra Islamic Centre played host to hundreds of curious Canberrans who came through the doors of the community centre in Monash.

Canberra Islamic Centre president Azra Khan said while the wider community were generally not invited to mosques, the event helped people to discover more about Muslims as people and not as "labelled objects".

"I think there is a genuine interest, a genuine willingness to engage," Ms Khan said.

She said the Canberra community was one of the more accepting of the multicultural society in which they lived.

For Alix Biggs, an ANU student studying the Middle East as part of her degree, the open day illustrated how tolerant Canberrans were.

"By virtue of having the embassies here in Canberra, we're used to living in a multicultural society and you can see part of that here today," she said.

Michelle Maddren, her partner Peter Lennon and their five children travelled from Amaroo for the event.

Ms Maddren said the open day was a way to teach her children to be accepting of all people in the community, as they were the ones who could promote that view as they grew up.

"We try and teach the kids about diversity, inclusion, understanding all aspects of religion and being accepting of other people's differences," Ms Maddren said.

"We want to find areas where the kids can go in and ask questions and broaden their knowledge, and broaden our own knowledge as well. I've never been in a mosque, I wanted to know what it's like."

Ms Maddren said if she could bring up her children to be accepting, it would help in creating a more harmonious community.

"I'm happy for my kids to be any religion they want … I don't think it makes a difference what religion you are if you're a good person."