FIRST PERSON: A FEAST WHICH FOLLOWS A FAST IS NOT IN SPIRIT

Manzoor Moghal has written the First Person column in today's Leicester Mercury:

A feast which follows a fast is not in spirit

The month of Ramadan is once again upon us and Muslims everywhere are fasting. It is obligatory for Muslims to fast during this month, as laid down in the Qu'ran, and they refrain from food, drink and tobacco from dawn to sunset, which at this time of year would be an average of 19 hours a day in Britain.

Before the advent of Islam, fasting was also prescribed for other religions but, with the passage of time, their fasting practices became truncated, distorted and were tailored to the convenience of their followers, with the result that the whole concept of fasting in these religions became totally corrupted.

In one of these religions, a whole month designated for fasting allows its people to eat and drink everything except cooked food and a few other items during the fasting period from morning to evening.In another religion where fasting stretches beyond 30 days, its adherents have to give up one item of their daily favourite food, while allowing them to eat and drink everything else at any time.

In yet another religion, two separate fasting days are extended to 24 hours of total refrain from any eating or drinking, and it has four other days which are somewhat similar to the Islamic way of fasting.

Other minor faiths have some variations, but none of these are anywhere near the Muslim way, which has remained in its pristine purity since its inception some 1,400 years ago.

However, there is a worrying trend which has recently crept into the Islamic way of fasting and it has begun to undermine both the spirit and the letter of fasting.

The time of breaking the Muslim fast at sunset is called iftar, and Muslims do this generally by eating a couple of dates and drinking tea or a glass of milk or water, followed by the fourth obligatory prayer of the day called maghrib.

After this, they disburse to their homes where they eat a modest meal before they go into the long night prayers at their mosques.

Unfortunately, the breaking of the fast time iftar is being turned into feasting by well-heeled Muslims – and it is becoming fashionable practice among many Muslims in some countries, including Britain.

Arab Muslims in the Middle East gorge themselves routinely with large quantities of food every evening after breaking their fast, and Muslims in places such as Pakistan have big iftar parties in restaurants, hotels and community centres.

Of late, a national Muslim organisation is encouraging Muslims in Britain to organise such iftar parties, inviting non-Muslims to participate in order to socialise and promote better understanding between different faiths.

The month of Ramadan is for fasting and not feasting!

Manzoor Moghal is an author and social commentator

BBC RADIO LEICESTER, THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: RAMADAN

This morning I'm in the studio at BBC Radio Leicester, to record a Thought for the Day with John Florance. This one's for broadcast on Jonathan Lampon's breakfast show, Monday 8 July - and here's how it sounded on the day:

JL: It's time for Thought for the Day, which comes today from George Ballentyne, a local Bahá'í.

GMB: Good morning

If you were to make a list of things that religious people do, fasting would be one of the first that comes to mind.

Fasting has always been one of the central practices of people who have religious beliefs – and this remains so in the modern world. Fasting is taken seriously by people of faith everywhere. 

Of the eight member religions represented on Leicester Council of Faiths, for example, seven have distinctive periods and methods of fasting at some time during their own calendar year.

On any given day, a sizeable number of people in Leicester and beyond will be fasting for religious reasons. Others will be fasting for different purposes: under medical instruction, as an aid to losing weight, or so that they can detox. And, sad to say in this day and age, more and more people find themselves going without food against their will, because of difficult personal or social circumstances.

Muslims everywhere will begin fasting tomorrow for the month of Ramadan – more than 60,000 people in Leicester, almost one in five of our city’s population.

For Muslim listeners, I hope you have a good fasting period, that the experience helps affirm and strengthen your faith identity for this month and the rest of the year.

For those of us who aren’t Muslim ourselves, but have Muslim friends, colleagues, co-workers or neighbours, why not ask them why they fast during Ramadan? Hopefully that should help us see fasting as part of a shared life experience – and that may come as a pleasant surprise.

JL: Thought for the Day there, which came from George Ballentyne, a local Bahá'í

I thought (without checking on it) that I was doing this with my Council of Faiths hat on. If I'd known I was going out on air as "a local Bahá'í" I'd have spoken about the commemoration of the Martyrdom of the Báb, that takes place on Tuesday 9 July. Still, it's perfectly in keeping with the Leicester way to have a Bahá'í comment on Ramadan - and have no one remark on it!

DIABETICS WARNED OVER FESTIVAL FASTING

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Diabetics warned over festival fasting

by Cathy Buss, Health Correspondent

A health specialist has warned thousands of Muslims suffering from diabetes to make sure they prepare properly for Ramadan.

City pharmacist Moinuddin Kolia said people must plan in advance before the religious festival, marked by fasting, or risk major health problems.

Those observing Ramadan will not eat or drink during daylight hours.

Mr Kolia, one of the directors of Moin's Chemist and Wellbeing Centre, in East Park Road, Spinney Hills, said he was concerned at lack of education on how people who fast should manage their diabetes medication.

He said: "This is a subject that really needs highlighting within other communities that fast, not just Muslims.

"Unless people understand what is required when fasting, it can be very dangerous and cause major health problems, such as low blood glucose levels, which can lead to a coma. In some circumstances, it can be fatal.

"Diabetes is something which needs to be managed properly throughout the year and Ramadan is no exception.

"What we are finding in general is a lack of education among many diabetics on how to manage their medication.

"With Ramadan falling at the peak of summer, with long hours, it is more important that those affected understand what they have to do.

"In the majority of situations, it will probably be a simple case of educating patients on how to manage medication, what to do if they have a hypoglycaemic attack when sugar levels fall very low and how the Ramadan diet will affect their diabetes.

"Some people do not realise if their diabetes is very severe they are not expected to fast."

This year, Ramadan begins on July 9 for 30 days.

Moin's Chemist, which recently opened a pharmacy in Market Harborough, has teamed up with experts at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust and the Leicester Diabetes Centre, which includes experts from the University of Leicester, to produce a number of ways to help those who are fasting.

This includes a diabetic specialist nurse and a pharmacist who have been running a series of workshops for patients. They have also produced a guide for diabetics called Fasting Toolkit for type two diabetics, which can be picked up from the store.

Mr Kolia said: "Most people who want to fast can do safely."

FEDERATION OF MUSLIM ORGANISATIONS RADIO SHOW ON EAVA FM

This morning I'm presenting the Interfaith Hour on Ramadan Radio, going out live on 102.5 FM and online at www.eava.com between 1000 and 1100. This is part of the schedule of programmes run by the Federation of Muslim Organisations during the Muslim month of fasting.

The hours in which FMO broadcast during Ramadan are donated by EAVA FM  Multilingual Radio. EAVA FM broadcasts in a variety of community languages including Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Gujarati, Hindi, Ndebele, Punjabi, Shona, Somali and Urdu. English content is definitely a minority interest for the station and its listeners. I've been on EAVA FM once before, in April 2009, when I was a guest on the Andy Cooke Show (which I blogged here). The station is located in the Leicester Business Centre on Ross Walk, which runs parallel to Melton Road. The front of the Leicester Business Centre has been demolished and rebuilt since then, so I spend several minutes going back and forth on Ross Walk, looking for something that isn't there any more. By the time I give up and phone the studio for directions, it turns out I'm so close, someone in the Leicester Business Centre could have leant out of a window and waved me in! Some of the Radio Ramadan programmes are broadcast from the offices of the FMO in Highfields. I was originally told to ge ther, but the equipment at their offices isn't quite good enough to do programmes with a lot of speech content, so the venue was switched to permit a better quality broadcast.

I'm in the studio half an hour before the start of the show, which gives me time to chat with Dee, (Manager at EAVA FM), Ashokhbhai (who is presenting a Hindi programme which finishes just before 1000) and Ismael Bin-Sulaiman (AKA Izzy), producer of the Interfaith Hour. Dee dangles before me the possibility of the Council of Faiths having a weekly hour-long show on the station (dependent on us obtaining sponsorship for it). That's something worth following up. During this conversation, I learn that typical listening figures for the FMO's Ramadan broadcasts are around the 300,000 mark. Most of those listeners access the show online, through the FMO website. The largest concentration of listeners is in  Chicago. Who'd have guessed?

Luman Ali at the the FMO invited me to do this programme a couple of weeks ago. I've been given carte blanche to fill the hour with my choice of content (within reason), so I've put together a programme about how the other seven communities represented on Leicester Council of Faiths approach fasting. I've recorded five short interviews with a Buddhist, a Christian, a Hindu, a Jew and a Sikh, each one of them responding to my questions about how they think about and practise fasting. Following a belt-and-braces approach, I've brought those recordings to the studio in a variety of formats: one CD with the interviews saved as MP3 files; another CD with the interviews saved as data files; a memory stick with MP3 files; my laptop with MP3 and data files; even the handheld digital recorder that I used for the original interviews. I'm not taking any chances! Thankfully, the first of these formats works without any problems.

Each of the interviewees has something interesting and distinctive to say about their religious beliefs and practices on this topic, as well as their personal experience. I invited a Jain friend to contribute too but we couldn't arrange a recording session in the time we had available. Not for the first time, I present the Jain perspective (reading a brief extract from a published source), as well as speaking briefly on my own behalf as a Bahá'í. The recorded interviews are linked by a brief chat between me and Izzy, whom I prompt for a Muslim's response to some of the points raised in the recordings. I think it goes alright, though it's a little rushed toward the end. I fit in everything that I'd wanted to get in, which is good. And thanks to Suleman Nagdi, who sent an SMS to the station, wishing me luck, from a train en route to Manchester.

As I'm leaving the studio, two chaps are setting up for the next programme, which I'm told is a "requests show". What that means in this case is that listeners send in their requests (by email or SMS) for one of the presenters to chant verses from the Qur’án, Hadith or another Islamic source, to heighten the devotional experience during Ramadan. This is one of those moments where I'm grateful for the work I do, and how permits me insights into ways of living that would otherwise not be visible to me.

JESUS THE "MIGHTY PROPHET"

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Jesus the "mighty prophet"

A mosque is to stage a play about the lives of Jesus and Mary.

Worshippers from Leicester's Muslim Khoja Shia Ithna Asheri Community are to stage the interfaith production to highlight the similarities between Islam and Christianity.

Jesus is a central figure in the Koran, in which he is known as Isa, and is revered as a major prophet fabled for his miracles, just as he is in the Bible.

The play will be performed at mosque in Duxbury Road, New Humberstone, Leicester.

The religious production is being put on as part of an inter-faith day of fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

People wanting to attend the event from 7pm on Saturday, August 4, can either give up food and water during daylight hours, as most Muslims do, or just give up a treat.

Secretary of the organising group Ali Abbas Panju said: "Along with being the month of prayer, fasting and other benefits, Ramadan is also the month of unity.

"We are requesting that all attendees keep a one-day fast for the purpose of attaining closeness to God.

"The fast may be a fruit fast, a water fast, simply keeping away from something enjoyable for one day, or giving up a bad habit consciously for just one day."

The 40-minute play, called The Fast of Maryam and Isa, will be shown twice and focus on Jesus fasting in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights.

Suleman Nagdi, of the Federation of Muslim Organisations in Leicestershire, said: "Christianity, Islam and Judaism are all based on the same early texts and the only real difference between Christians and Muslims is that Jesus is not seen as the literal son of God in Islam, but as a mighty prophet who performed miracles.

"There are 24 mentions of Jesus in the Koran and a whole passage about his mother Mary.

"A lot of people are unaware of how important they are.

"The play has been chosen as it highlights these similarities and a devout Christian would be comfortable with the play.

"There are parts of the world where there are difficulties but there are also parts where Muslims and Christians work very closely together.

Christians and Jews are all considered 'people of the book' within Islam, following religions with the same message."

Manjula Sood, chair of the Leicester Council of Faiths, will be attending the event.

She said: "I think it's very helpful to celebrate the commonalities as well as the differences between the faiths.

"Judaism, Christianity and Islam have so many similarities and it's good to get together and remember the goodness of all faiths and the message of peace and harmony they share.

"Our ability to celebrate one another's faiths is a great strength of our city."

To reserve a place at the event, e-mail: secretary.mksi@gmail.com

Ramadan: a guide for the perplexed

Here's a nice piece from today's Guardian G2 section, published online in the Comment is free: Belief website.

Ramadan: a guide for the perplexed

I'm fasting for Ramadan. It might be a good time to lay to rest some common myths about the whole business

By Mehdi Hasan

I crawled out of bed this morning at 2.45am, exhausted and bleary-eyed. I wolfed down two eggs, two slices of toast, a croissant, half a banana and several glasses of water. Then I went back to bed.

I performed a similar routine at a similar time yesterday, and the day before that, too. Awoke, ate and slept again. Have I gone mad, I hear you ask? Why do I seem to be having pregnancy-style, middle-of-the-night cravings for fried breakfasts and lots of liquid?

I don't. There's a more prosaic explanation: it is Ramadan and I'm now on to my third day of fasting. Luckily for me, and for the 1.6 billion other Muslims across the world, there are just 27 more days to go. (Is that my stomach I hear groaning?)

Fasting, or "sawm", in Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam – the others being the "shahadah" (declaration of faith), "salat" (the five daily prayers), "zakat" (almsgiving) and the "hajj" (pilgrimage). The fast is considered to be a "wajib" or obligatory act (though there are exemptions that I'll come to in a moment).

Muslims fast for 30 days in Ramadan. Just to be clear: we fast from sunrise (hence the 2.45am wakeup) to sunset (around 9pm at the moment) each day. We don't fast for 30 days as a whole. That, of course, would be impossible. Not to mention suicidal.

Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, is regarded by Muslims as one of the most holy months: we believe that it was during Ramadan that the Qur'an was first revealed to prophet Muhammad by the angel Gabriel.

The Islamic calendar has been lunar since its inception in AD622, with each month beginning with the sighting of a new moon. As the lunar year is 11 to 12 days shorter than the solar year, the start date for Ramadan moves back through the western calendar each year. A few years ago, Ramadan coincided with our winter, when the days were shorter and cooler; this year, to much moaning and griping from British Muslims (yes, me included), it's fallen in the summer, with much longer and hotter days. That means the fasting isn't easy. Imagine, for instance, going on the underground in the sweltering August heat without being able to take a bottle of water with you.

In fact, you're not allowed any liquids: no water, no juice, no milk . . . The list of "banned" items and activities in Ramadan is extensive: no cigarettes, drugs, sex, bad language or bad behaviour, from sunrise to sunset. That, dear readers, is the challenge. (In case you're wondering, chewing gum isn't allowed either.)

"Has it begun?" my colleagues asked me earlier this week, their eyes expressing a mixture of sympathy, pity and – just perhaps – awe. Most (well-meaning) non-Muslims view Ramadan as deeply oppressive. Isn't it dangerous, I'm often asked? Doesn't it damage your health? Weaken you?

The short answer is No. Millions (billions?) of Muslims have been fasting for centuries, without suffering any Ramadan-specific illnesses or diseases. Vulnerable groups – the sick, the elderly, children, pregnant women, travellers – are exempt. And, in recent years, a number of academic studies have demonstrated the health benefits of fasting. According to a paper published in April by the Intermountain Medical Centre Heart Institute in Utah, it can lower the risk of coronary artery disease and diabetes, and keep blood cholesterol levels in check. The researchers found fasting could also reduce other cardiac risk factors such as excess weight, blood sugar levels and triglycerides.

Some of the world's leading athletes and sports stars have managed to fast while performing at the highest levels. Next year, Ramadan starts in July, and will cover the whole period of the Olympics. East London will be home to Muslim athletes from across the world, fasting, competing and – I guarantee you – winning medals.

It's nothing new. In the 90s, Hakeem Olajuwon, a devout Muslim considered to be one of the greatest basketball players of his generation, would often play in the NBA for the Houston Rockets while fasting. "It made me stronger and my statistics went up," he later remarked. "I was better during Ramadan, more focused." In February 1995, Olajuwon averaged an impressive 29 points per game and was named NBA Player of the Month, despite the entire month coinciding with Ramadan.

More recently, Manchester City's Kolo Touré, also a practising Muslim, has had no qualms about fasting and playing top-flight football. "It doesn't affect me physically," Touré argued during last year's Ramadan, which happened to correspond with the first month of the Premier League. "It makes me stronger. You can do it when you believe so strongly in something."

Ramadan becomes an unparalleled, month-long opportunity for personal and spiritual growth – and the fast is a deeply private act of worship. "Of the five pillars of Islam, the fast of Ramadan is perhaps the most personal expression of self-surrender to God," the American writer and convert to Islam, Jeffrey Lang, argues in his book, Even Angels Ask. "We can observe a Muslim performing the other four pillars, but, in addition to himself, only God knows if he is staying with the fast."

So far, I've managed three. Now, what time is it? Noon. Hmm. Just eight hours and 55 minutes to go.

Mehdi Hasan is the senior editor (politics) at the New Statesman, author of the e-book,  Summer of Unrest: The Debt Delusion and co-author (with James Macintyre) of Ed: The Millibands and the Making of a Labour Leader.

Fasting and feasting

Each day the Leicester Mercury publishes a pair of brief quotations from sacred or inspirational texts as its Thoughts for the Day. These appear below its Opinion column. The first of these is always from the Bible (either Old or New Testament), the second from another source, frequently one associated with a member community of Leicester Council of Faiths. Today’s quotation is from a Bahá’í text, an extract from the writings of Bahá'u'lláh: “Verily, I say, fasting is the supreme remedy and the most great healing for the disease of self and passion.”

Now, I don’t know if anyone actually reads these. I do regularly – more often from a sense of obligation than anything else. While they’re usually innocuous, Today’s has left me with an uneasy feeling. Which of our religious communities are fasting now? The Bahá’ís certainly aren’t (the annual 19-day long Baha’i fast ended at sunset on 20 March).

Just a few pages further on in today’s paper, there’s an article about Vaisakhi, illustrated with a picture of two Sikh gentlemen preparing some of the free food that will be on offer to those participating in the parade through Leicester city centre. There’s also a positive piece about an international food and drink fair coming to the city – and, for that matter, there’s one of the regular continental markets going on in the city centre this week.

So where’s the value in a quotation from any religious source about fasting today? It could easily be read to make the Bahá’ís appear mean-spirited killjoys, ascetic even – and they’re neither of those. I’m sure that the appearance of this quotation today is a coincidence. A similar quotation from the Bahá’í writings appeared during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which I remarked upon as a positive coincidence – a piece of serendipity even, with a quotation from one of our faith communities (and the smallest of them, at that) backing up the practice at that time of another (the largest). This one has the opposite effect; although I may be the only person noticing it or commenting on it.

Still, it does show the lack of thought or planning behind the selection and publication  of these texts – and for many Leicester people, they may be virtually the sole exposure to these different faiths. It would be better if it were done with just a little more thought – and an eye on the calendar.