Fasting in Ramzan won’t be easy, says London Mayor Sadiq Khan

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The first Muslim mayor of London admits that Ramzan will be tough for him this year round.

“Anyone who knows me knows that I’m miserable during Ramzan. What I usually miss the most is caffeine; I go to lots and lots of boring meetings and I need caffeine to keep going,” Sadiq Khan said. “This year, in preparation [for Ramzan], I tried to cut down on coffee in the lead up to it. Food isn’t the issue – you get over that.”

While on the subject, he also discussed the general impression of Muslims –and Islam — around the world and how he intended to cultivate and bring together the Muslim and non-Muslim communities during the holy month.

“If you’re someone who doesn’t have Muslim friends and your only experience of Islam is what you see on the news – the angry man with a beard doing or saying something terrible – then you may inadvertently associate that with Islam and think that is what it’s all about,” says Khan.

Speaking about the holy month, Khan said, “I’m aware that it’s a great opportunity to do things in the community and break down the mystique and suspicion around the religion.”

Sadiq Khan intends to build bridges between the Muslim and non-Muslim communities by hosting Ramzan meals (or iftars) at synagogues, churches and mosques across London. “I’m making it a priority this month to get out there and build bridges by hosting Ramadan meals around the city at synagogues, churches and mosques.”

Khan feels that hosting iftar dinners and having non-Muslim brethren share thE meal will allow for people to share experiences which, he opines, is possibly the best way for them to understand each other’s faith. “We have the most diverse city in the world, but we don’t have people mixing as much as they could. I want to enable people to have a sense of belonging.”

Courtesy: The Guardian

 

3 COMMENTS

  1. According to sighting of Helaal as per the Shariah, Rumazaan begins today in all countries of Asia, Africa and Europe. The first ever place where Helaal was seen on Sunday, June 5, 2016 was on the west coast of Chile in S. America and in California in N. America. Ref: http://www.icoproject.org/icop/ram37.html (Arabic/English) and http://www.moonsighting.com/1437rmd.html (English).
    The only country in Arabia where new Hijree month comes and goes by the Shariah of actual sighting of Helaal is Oman. Hence the Oman government issued the following statement:
    Muscat: Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs announced that Tuesday, 7th of June, will mark the first day of Ramadan. Ref: http://timesofoman.com/article/85420/Ramadan/Firs
    The other country of Arabic speaking people where Shariah of Helaal sighting is strictly observed in common with the Ulamah in this subcontinent, is Morocco. Hence in Morocco and in most of the sub Sahara Africa, Muslims are observing the advent of Rumazaan from today, Tuesday June 7, 2016.
    Majority of the Arabs of Arabia and Arabic speaking people from Kuwait to Algeria obey moon seen on Ummulqurah calendar. This calendar is not Shariah compliant hence those who obey it started fasting from Monday. So did the Turks, Malaysians, Indonesians and other people who obey Ummulqurah. The Turks, Malaysians and Indonesians also follow their own Sharia non compliant calendars. So we can see that the Shariah of Helaal sighting is observed only by the 430 millions of Muslims of the sub-continent, Omanis, Muslims of South Africa, Muslims of Africa, Morocco and a few others.
    So to know the correct status of Hijree month in Arabia one needs to look at Omani newspapers. What is surprising that a small minority of Saudi Arabian news papers show correct Hijree dates. Alhayat, Arreyadi are among the few.

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