Most days, the only Christian many Al-Amal School students interact with is their school counselor.

On Wednesday, fifth-graders from the private Muslim school in Fridley met a playground full of Catholic school students at Merriam Park in St. Paul.

“They are different from what I’m used to,” said Al-Amal student Imran Osman. “Overall, they’re good people.”

Students from Al-Amal and St. Mark’s Catholic School in St. Paul have been exchanging letters for weeks to learn about each other’s school and religion.

Muslims pray more often, they learned, but Catholic prayers are longer.

The Fridley students are learning Arabic as a second language, the St. Paul students Spanish.

I think there’s been a little bit of fighting between Muslims and Christians, so we did this to get to know other people and become friends.”

Neither class likes broccoli.

Meeting in person for the first time Wednesday, they found more common ground in a love for soccer — or at least end-of-year field trips to the park.

“We learned that a bunch of them play soccer and they’re pretty decent. Some of them are pretty fast,” said Al-Amal student Ahmed Syed.

St. Mark’s fifth-grader Maggie Kappelhoff explained the purpose of the get-together:

“I think there’s been a little bit of fighting between Muslims and Christians, so we did this to get to know other people and become friends,” she said.

Kappelhoff learned the hijab that some Muslim girls and women cover their hair with is “just kind of a traditional thing.” Some of the Al-Amal girls wore easy-to-remove hijabs in case one of their pen pals wanted to try it on.

“It’s really fun to learn about different cultures because it’s so different from your own,” Kappelhoff said.

The idea for the exchange came from Kelley Stoneburner, who is school counselor for Al-Amal and has a relative attending St. Mark’s. Related Articles Minneapolis and St. Paul to add 70 electric car charging stations

Neighborhood girl finds and returns chef Justin Sutherland’s stolen knife roll

Therapy dog-in training stolen in St. Paul found, reunited with owners

St. Stanislaus’ longtime priest the Rev. John Clay leaves legacy of love. He died Sunday at age 94

St. Paul man threatened another man with a sword, charges say

“By this age, (Al-Amal students) have had some exposure to being teased by non-Muslims. And being private school kids, they’re pretty sheltered in the Muslim community,” she said.

Stoneburner and St. Mark’s teacher Rachel Ogard said neither school’s fifth-grade curriculum includes lessons on different religions.

But this year, to kick off the exchange with Al-Amal, St. Mark’s Principal Zach Zeckser led a special lesson on the similarities and differences among the Abrahamic religions: Christianity, Islam and Judaism. The students, he said, had more questions than there was time to answer.

“Our unit right now is, ‘As Christians, we love all of God’s people,’ so the timing was perfect,” Ogard said.