By Saadia Faruqi
If you live in a major U.S. city chances are that you’ve heard of Ramadan, the sacred Islamic month in which Muslims fast from dawn to dusk. Ramadan used to be a strange and unknown religious celebration in the United States a few decades ago. Now, thanks to the negative and positive publicity American Muslims have received in recent years, everybody knows when and why we are fasting. Everyone from the White House to the local church and synagogue is holding interfaith iftar events (breaking of the fast) for their Muslim friends and neighbors. I should be proud and happy that my esoteric religious ritual is no longer looked upon as an undue hardship forced upon me by my religion. That finally the American public is ready and willing to accept me, with my five daily prayers and my fasting and my hijab, as one of them. I should be attending those interfaith iftar events with happiness and fervor. But I’m not.
Last Friday at congregational prayers, I had an eye-opening experience. As I
entered my mosque parking lot, I saw two Caucasian women, possibly a mother and
daughter, holding up a sign that read, "Please Help, Need Money for Food and
Rent." I found it disturbing, even though my hometown of Houston is ridden with
poverty and homelessness. So what was wrong with this picture? The mosque I
attend is a Pakistani community, with the occasional Indian or Bangladeshi
standing out like a sore thumb. Yet here were two white women standing outside
practically begging.
Christ Church Cathedral in Houston hosted an interfaith Iftaar on July 11, presented by the Friends of Iman, a group of young adults who organize education and interfaith activities in memory of Iman Haq, a young Muslim woman who died two years ago at the age of 20. An Iftaar is a traditional Islamic dinner observed during the month of Ramadan, when the community gathers together to break their daylong fast as the sun goes down.
