Norwich — A three-person panel of Muslim-Americans engaged nearly 100 people here Sunday at Park Congregational Church, fielding hand-written questions about the Muslim faith and some of the misimpressions that many believe surround it.

One in a series of “Honest Conversations with Muslim Neighbors,” the 90-minute meeting provided participants with an opportunity that event organizers said is all too rare.

“People of good intent never have the chance to get their questions answered,” Terry Schmitt, executive director of the Connecticut Council for Interreligious Understanding, said. “It takes guts to walk up to somebody and say, ‘Tell me about your religion.’”

The council co-sponsored the session along with the Hartford Seminary and the Muslim Coalition of Connecticut.

Responding to a question about the presidential election, panelist Dr. Reza Mansoor, a cardiologist who practices at Hartford Hospital, said he most fears the effect of the anti-Muslim rhetoric he hears and the media’s focus on the sensational.

Lejla Duric, a schoolteacher and community activist who lives in Wethersfield, said her eighth- and ninth-grade students are “very confused.” They ask, she said, whether they’re going to be deported and “What’s going to happen to us?”

The third panelist, Linda Miller, an African-American and retired nurse and teacher, said Muslim-Americans have all kinds of nuanced concerns about the election, as all groups do.

“We’re not monolithic. We don’t all think the same,” she said, adding that she’s “not comfortable” with either major party presidential candidate.

She said she’s more optimistic about candidates for other offices.

“We’re going to be OK no matter who gets elected,” she said.

Schmitt, who moderated the meeting, said the “honest conversations” the council has been co-sponsoring around the state are not a response to the uproar over Donald Trump’s call months ago for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration. He said the sessions — Sunday’s was the 18th — began soon after the February 2015 murders of three Muslims of Arab descent in North Carolina.

“We do this when we feel someone is being targeted,” he said. “Our motto is: When we understand each other more, we hurt each other less.”

Duric answered a question about the head coverings worn by many Muslim women, while Monsoor sought to clarify aspects of Muslim theology.

“If I see Muslims being harassed, what can I do?” Schmitt said, reading one of the questions submitted by an audience member.

“Help,” Duric said.

“Muslims are not out to get you,” Mansoor added.

”The fact you are here shows you’re willing to understand,” Miller said. “Everyone here should speak to others. Speak the truth — that is what will protect us.”

Ignorance and closemindedness are largely to blame for the misunderstandings that divide the religious, the panel members agreed.

“We tend to learn a little and pretend to know a lot,” Duric said.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com