Hartford — Members of the mosque that a Meriden man shot at with a rifle in 2015 brought their "True Islam" campaign to Hartford on Thursday in an ongoing effort to encourage education and peace in the face of anti-Islam sentiment.

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Connecticut, the state chapter of a sect of Islam founded in India in the late 19th century, said they have used the shooting as an opportunity to open their doors even further and take their message on the road.

"Islam teaches us to be patriots," said Miyan Zahir Muhammad Mannan, the chapter's director of outreach and a member of the Baitul Aman "House of Peace" mosque in Meriden.

Ted Hakey Jr., a Meriden man who later sought forgiveness and served six months in federal prison, shot at the mosque with a rifle on an evening in November 2015, hours after Islamic State extremists attacked bars, cafes, a concert hall and a sports stadium in Paris.

No one was injured in the shooting, but Mannan said Thursday that the incident pushed the mosque's members and the Connecticut community of Ahmadi Muslims to expand their efforts to educate people and promote Islam as a peaceful religion outside the doors of the mosque.

"We thought, where did we go so wrong?" he remembered Thursday.

Meriden Mayor Kevin Scarpati said Thursday he was heartened by the mosque's response to the shooting.

"They responded with peace, and with love and with outreach," he said, speaking alongside Meriden's police chief and the missionary for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in New England and upstate New York, Hamid Malik.

"I think it's a great thing to spread the message of love, not hate," Scarpati said.

Though the audience in the conference room in the state Capitol building Thursday was sparse, Malik pointedly condemned all terrorism and reiterated the Ahmadiyya community's commitment to promoting Islam as a peaceful religion.

"It is essential ... to raise our voices against all forms of hate, intolerance, bigotry and terror," he said. The key ingredients of their faith, he said "are mutual respect and tolerance."

The presentation, which included posters featuring Quran verses and videos of international leaders praising the Ahmadiyya community, is a "mobile campaign" initiated by the Ahmadiyya caliphate to educate people about the sect.

Members of the Meriden mosque, the center of the Connecticut Ahmadiyya community, have traveled throughout the state to, among other things, simply educate people who have never met a Muslim person.

The mosque's members have started hosting coffee and cake gatherings with their neighbors, and Wajid Ahmed, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community's public relations director, said Hakey and other Meriden residents have become friends.

"Our job is just to do these things, and keep doing it," Ahmed said. "This is not the time to be quiet."

m.shanahan@theday.com