Highway travelers driving past the hulking mosque on I-75 see the metallic gold dome, the 135-foot-tall minarets and the intricate stained-glass windows. The Islamic Center of Greater Toledo makes some people curious. For others, it conjures up stereotypes fueled by the Sept. 11 terrorist attack and the Iraq War.

Imam Farooq Aboelzahab wishes they all would stop in, ask questions and see the mosque and Muslim ways for themselves.

"We need to talk about Islam and show Islam to others," he said. "We feel responsible to reach out, be with the people and show what we have in common."

Aboelzahab and others at the mosque are part of an enthusiastic outreach program. Its mission is to show outsiders that Muslims are just like them: Americans with families who care about safety and community.

Mosque leaders across the state say they’re doing public relations work more than ever. It’s necessary to counter all the negative stereotypes of Muslims that have popped up since Sept. 11, they say.

So they open the doors to the mosques, offer traditional Muslim food at community picnics and visit their neighbors who might be leery of them.

Muslim leaders say educating others always has been a part of Islam. But it’s increasingly necessary in light of Sept. 11, the subsequent wars and high-profile arrests such as that of Christopher Paul, the North Side man accused of training al-Qaida terrorists. Paul is a convert to Islam.

One Columbus Muslim leader, Adnan Mirza, said Paul’s arrest made him think, "Here we go again."

Negative news related to Islam "helps promote dialogue, but you spend a great portion of that dialogue fending off the attacks and fending off a lot of stereotypes about Islam," said Mirza, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Columbus.

Muslims say too many people believe Islam is a violent religion that fosters terrorism and is oppressive to women. They try to show that neither of these stereotypes is true.

One of the biggest misconceptions about Islam is that it’s incompatible with Judeo-Christian values and democracy, Mirza said. People also wrongly assume that Arab and Muslim are synonymous, he said, when the majority of Arab Americans are Christian.

Muslims try to counter those misperceptions with a little "Islam 101."

That’s why the community at the Toledo-area mosque, plopped in a farm field in the southern suburb of Perrysburg, is so happy to give tours of the 40,000-square-foot structure.

Visitors see the expansive but surprisingly bare prayer hall, decorated only with five gold chandeliers and rugs with Arabic writing hanging on the walls. They see the washroom where worshippers cleanse their

Non-Muslims can observe the main prayer service on Fridays.

The mosque hosts an annual International Festival for the public, complete with a petting zoo, camel rides for kids and a food court with about a dozen ethnic cuisines.

Other mosques also see food as a route to friendship.

This summer will be the second year of a picnic at the Unity Center Mosque in Brecksville, in suburban Cleveland, said mosque secretary Mohammad Assar.

Last year, about 30 non-Muslims from the neighborhood snacked on traditional Muslim food and toured the small mosque, a converted Christian Science church, Assar said.

"We see most of the people at the beginning are hesitant," Assar said. But then after a "10-minute, 15-minute or half-hour interaction, you see everything kind of change."

Muslims often collaborate with People of the Book, a term some use to describe Jews and Christians. Imams, rabbis and ministers speak together at forums, and Muslims often join interfaith community service groups.

In the Cincinnati area, a small social group of religious women have met four times this year at one another’s homes.

It was the idea of Clara Szucs, a Catholic homemaker, who was tired of receiving forwarded e-mails about Muslims being responsible for the war in Iraq. She worked with a woman from the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati to start the group.

Szucs said she already knew that Muslims were not all terrorists, but she did think they liked to stick to themselves. Her mind has changed, she said.

"I really see that they want to be American," she said. "They want to be part of us."

Changing minds isn’t always as pleasant as sharing some snacks and laughs.

Last year, Ahmad Al-Akhras and two other community leaders knocked on the door of a man whose car bore a bumper sticker that read: "Jesus loves you. Allah wants you dead."

Al-Akhras is president of the Islamic Foundation of Central Ohio and is the vice chairman of the national Council on American-Islamic Relations.

They spoke to the ex-Marine for more than an hour at his doorstep, telling him they had 11 children between them and cared strongly about America’s safety, Al-Akhras said.

"More than 95 percent of the time, we agree on things," Al-Akhras said of Muslims and non-Muslims.

He isn’t sure that visit did any good.

Mosque leaders also try to teach law-enforcement officers about Islam.

Emily Tarazi, 23, has spoken to many high-school classes about Islam. The Worthington woman, who converted to Islam in 2000, thinks non-Muslims feel comfortable with her.

High-school students have asked her about Islam’s stance on dating, sex and dance clubs, among other things. Many were amazed that the green-eyed, fair-skinned young woman who spoke perfect English was Muslim, she said.

"Whoa, she’s normal, and she’s nice, and she’s Muslim" was a typical reaction, Tarazi said.

Other Muslims say they’ve witnessed similar epiphanies, which give them hope.

S. Zaheer Hasan, public relations chairman at the Toledo mosque, said he’s seen a change.

"I see a lot of people realizing what they hear is not correct," Hasan said. Still, "I think this will be a perpetual struggle on our part."

mheagney@dispatch.com faces, hands and feet before prayer, and the closet where Muslim women keep spare head scarves for anyone who needs one.

Non-Muslim women are not asked to cover their heads. Guests simply are expected to dress modestly, as they would at any place of worship.

The tour includes a stop at a small clinic, where a rotation of Muslim doctors volunteer on Sundays to give free consultations to anyone who asks. The empty prayer hall is predictably quiet, but downstairs there is the sound of exuberant children being shushed by their teachers. The 65 students in the mosque’s school, ranging from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade, learn the typical publicschool fare, plus Islamic studies and Arabic.

Aboelzahab usually gives departing visitors a Quran from the bookstore, ignoring the $7 price tag. He doesn’t need a copy. He learned it by heart by the age of 10.