Published: September 15, 2009 11:11 am      

Local Muslims extend Ramadan tidings

EDMOND — Two weeks ago, the Oklahoma Chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations had an event at the main Oklahoma City Muslim Mosque on St. Clair Avenue that was designed to familiarize people of other faiths with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The event was hosted by Edmond resident Razi Hashmi, the executive director of CAIR-Oklahoma. He presented a video that detailed how Muslims fast during the daylight hours of the lunar month of Ramadan as a way to feel closer to God and to learn discipline and restraint, and also to develop sympathy for the less fortunate. He explained that fasting during Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam, the other four being a declaration of faith, daily prayers, giving to charity and making a pilgrimage to Mecca. After the conclusion of that presentation, Hashmi invited the participants to share in the traditional Iftar dinner that was served at the mosque after the sun went down.

The CAIR director explained to his guests how the Muslim community has engaged in outreach to the larger community in a variety of ways during this year’s Ramadan, including serving meals to homeless people at the Oklahoma City Jesus House and City Rescue Mission.

CAIR also has partnered with other civic organizations, including the NAACP, to train people to respond to emergencies. At the University of Oklahoma in Norman the Muslim Student Association is hosting its third annual “Think Fast” event designed to encourage students and faculty on that campus to skip a meal and donate the money saved to a charity. Muslim students at Oklahoma City University and the University of Central Oklahoma also are having Ramadan events.

Hashmi said in both Oklahoma City and Tulsa the Muslim communities have sponsored food and clothing drives to assist the underprivileged in the state.

In recent years the Oklahoma City mosque has hosted a Muslim cleric from Johannesburg, South Africa, Imam Abdurrahman Munshi, for the month of Ramadan.

Munshi is what is known as a “hafez” in that he has memorized the Muslim holy book of the Koran in its entirety. Every night during Ramadan, he leads the congregation of the mosque in the recitation of two chapters from the Koran, and by the end of the holy month the Koran has been recited in full. The South African imam is a warm and friendly man who speaks fondly of Oklahoma City as the place where he spent Ramadan for the past four years, and said the city and its people have a special place in his heart as a result. He explained that Muslims have been present in South Africa since the 1700s when the Dutch, who controlled what was then the Cape Colony, brought Malaysian slaves to work in that colony. In the 19th century, when much of South Africa was a British colony, the colonial authorities brought Muslims from India to work in the sugar cane fields, and many of them remained in that country. Munshi is himself a native of India who came to South Africa decades ago to minister to the spiritual needs of Muslims there.

He said the majority of the members of his Johannesburg mosque are of Indian descent, and include physicians and other professionals as well as small businessmen, and are fairly prosperous. It would seem that a similar observation could be made about the Oklahoma City Muslims who come to recite the Koran with Imam Munshi. They are college students, physicians, professors, engineers and business men and women.



WILLIAM F. O’BRIEN is an Oklahoma City attorney