11 December 2001

Muslim Americans Ready for Close of Ramadan

Washington -- As Christians prepare for Christmas festivities and Jews celebrate Hanukkah, Muslims too are in the midst of one of their holiest times of the year -- Ramadan, which ends December 16. This year, nearly 7 million Muslims in the United States greeted the holiday with a mix of sentiments.

Many American Muslims approached this year's Ramadan as a time of reflection and prayer for peace after the events of September 11 and the subsequent military campaign in Afghanistan. The Providence Journal-Bulletin in Rhode Island described how Ramadan holds both hope and uncertainty for an Afghan-American family.

"My hope is that when Ramadan ends, we will have a feast, knowing that there's a transitional government that will reflect the ethnic and political complexion of Afghan society," said Anwar Ahady, a Providence College professor.

The Boston Herald featured a Lebanese-born Muslim living in Quincy, Massachusetts, who said this year she was praying and fasting harder than ever before. "Ramadan headlines the meaning of peace," said Sawsan Berjawi, a mother of four. "But this Ramadan, some people may not witness peace. So as Muslims we must pray harder this year -- for them and for peace."

Mohammed, a 26-year-old American-born Pakistani who "never took his Islamic heritage seriously," said this Ramadan was a special time, the Herald reported. "Ramadan is universal for all Muslims and I want to be a part of it to feel a connection to my heritage and my people," he said.

Other U.S. Muslims saw this year's Ramadan as an opportunity to educate fellow Americans and the world about how they celebrate Islam. From Sarasota, Florida, to San Diego, California, Muslims in the United States shared their Ramadan traditions of reading the Koran, fasting during daylight hours, and breaking the fast after sundown.

In Sarasota, Muslims invited the community to an Iftaar dinner to share the breaking of the fast. Of nearly 300 people who attended the event, 90 percent were non-Muslims, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported.

"We needed to make the ice melt and have the fear people have be replaced by light and knowledge," Hasan Hammami, who helped organize the event, told the Herald-Tribune.

Similarly, for the first time San Diego's mosques invited Christians and Jews and anyone else who was interested to attend Ramadan observances in an attempt to "satisfy their curiosity and calm their fears about Islam," the Los Angeles Times reported.

"There's a different feeling this year," said Abdeljalil Mezgouri, an imam at the San Diego Islamic Center. "We're open to everyone for Ramadan. You don't need an appointment. Just come and be our guests."

Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Southern California, said he hoped the public's interest in Ramadan would dispel some of the damage done to their faith's image by the September 11 attacks.

"This year we'll witness the largest ever coverage of Muslims and their holidays," he said. "Our prayer is that this will help balance the negative coverage."

Non-Muslim Americans have participated in fasting for a day or more during this year's Ramadan. Wendy Chamberlin, U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, surprised many in her host country when she announced she would fast during Islam's holy month to identify more closely with what Muslims experience.

Richard Mouw, an evangelical in southern California, said he would fast for a day during Ramadan to show solidarity with his many Muslims friends.

"Islam has been much on my mind since September 11. And like many others, I have also thought more intensely about my spiritual life during the past two months," writes Mouw in an essay published on Beliefnet, a website featuring information and dialogue on spirituality.

"So this year, while Muslims fast during Ramadan, I, too, will experiment with a time of fasting and prayer," Mouw said.

Fourth-grade student Jessica Motawea took the opportunity this month to teach her classmates in San Antonio, Texas about Ramadan, according to the San Antonio Express-News. Her audience listened attentively to an explanation of the five pillars of Islam, the origins of the Muslim faith and some cultural background about Egypt, where her parents were born.

Principal Andy Kline attended part of the presentation and told the Express-News he was delighted with the young girl's plan to educate her classmates. "We have a very multicultural community here, and ignorance is the biggest enemy to understanding one another," he said.

The largest segment of the American Muslim community, according to a Carnegie Corporation report released in November, is made up of recent immigrants from 50 countries. Many U.S. Muslims, remembering the ways of their homeland, view Ramadan as a chance to teach their American-born children about old family traditions.

A native of Iran who lives in the United States with his family said he had been anxious for Ramadan's arrival so he could offer his son date omelettes at dawn, a tradition he remembers from Iran's pre-revolution days. "Today I am missing what felt like the simplicity of those days," writes Omid Safi on Beliefnet.

Another family mixes old traditions with new, as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. In Brookfield, Wisconsin, Rafat Arain prepared traditional foods from her native Pakistan while her children waited in the final moments before sunset. Thirteen-year-old Zaki retrieved a Nestle Crunch bar and poured a glass of milk with extra strawberry syrup to accompany the break-the-fast dinner.

The Arains, along with other Muslim Americans and Muslims worldwide, look forward to Eid ul-Fitr, the celebratory feast at the end of Ramadan, this year to be held around December 16. "On this day, you see all kinds of food. There's a spirit of Thanksgiving," Rafat Arain told the Journal Sentinel.