Less than a month after a firebomb went through the window of their school, worshippers at the Hamilton Mountain Mosque threw open the doors to the public over the weekend.

The busy open house proved to be affirming for Hamilton's Muslims and educational for their non-Muslim neighbours.

An estimated 350 visitors packed the mosque and its attached school.

There, amid handshaking and laughter, they enjoyed halal snacks, asked questions about Islamic practices and beliefs and took stocking-foot tours of the mosque and Islamic School of Hamilton, located together on the site of a former racquet club.

"It was comforting to know there are so many people out there who support the existence of the community as part of the city of Hamilton - who felt that Muslims are part of us, the mosque is part of us and the school is part of us," said Taher Ghouse, vice-president of the Muslim Association of Hamilton.

For those who wished to see it, the tours included the principal's office, where before dawn Jan 4 an unidentified attacker threw a firebomb through a window. The bomb landed behind the desk in a plastic garbage can.

Members of the mosque decided to fight back with kindness, by inviting their neighbours inside for an open house.

Meanwhile mosque officials found last week it will only receive $25,000 for security upgrades.

The group had applied for $50,000 in July and was planning to pay another $48,000 from its own coffers.

Hussein Hamdani, the association's legal counsel, said they will now be forced to pay for most of the $98,000 building-wide surveillance system that includes cameras, alarms and signage.

- Metroland News Service