The Baltimore chapter of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA rented a booth at the Maryland State Fair as a venue to publicize the Muslims for Life campaign. The Muslims for Life booth was a great way for us to show the patriotic aspect of the Muslims for Life campaign, to introduce the name of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community to residents of Maryland alongside the name of the American Red Cross. Our booth was in the exhibition hall – beside booths for non-profit organizations such as the Obama-Biden campaign, whose representatives incidentally were some of the first to sign up to give blood – to hand out pamphlets to the attendees of the fair.

Thousands of Marylanders visited the booth, but many visitors to the booth came from out of state. Muslims for Life volunteers spoke to people visiting from places as varied as Pennsylvania, Virginia, Missouri, South America, England, and Azerbaijan.

All visitors were encouraged to sign up on the spot for blood donation, and as of today over 200 people have signed up and received Muslims for Life t-shirts. Many more visitors came by and, though they didn’t sign up immediately, they picked up flyers, business cards, and received other information to look at and pass on to friends.

The Maryland State Fair took place over 11 days, with an estimated 500,000 attendees from August 26 to September 5. Men, women, and children all volunteered alongside each other at the booth, handing out flyers to fair-goers. Not only were two large banners on display for passersby, but a video presentation was set up on a TV screen. The Baltimore chapter successfully sold and distributed Islamic literature, including a Holy Qur’an with translation and short commentary, several copies of “The Philosophy of the Teachings of Islam”, and even books on Islam in Russian and Azerbaijani to one very pleasantly surprised visitor.