Excerpt:
About 300 to 400 Muslims showed up at the state Capitol Monday to raise awareness about the Islamic faith and to urge legislators to pass a resolution supporting religious freedom.
"We want to show that we're organized, and that we're growing," said Samir Junejo, who came to Olympia with a group from the Council on Islamic-American Relations Washington (CAIR-WA). A group from the Islamic Circle of North America also took to the Capitol on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
Besides wanting to take a "proactive" approach to ensuring that Washington residents' religious freedom is protected, Junejo said part of the coalition's goal is to show legislators and other Washington citizens that Muslims are ordinary people.