Each Friday night during the holy fasting month of Ramadan, Ottawa Muslims organize a harmony iftar banquet that gathers people of all faiths and ethnic backgrounds to share Muslims’ breakfast meal.
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“We started the event to create awareness and to promote harmony and peace between different communities,” Ayan Dualeah, who helped organize the dinner at the Sala San Marco banquet, told Ottawa Citizen.
“It’s so Muslims and non-Muslim people in the community can join together and learn about each other.”
In Ramadan, adult Muslims abstain from food, drink, smoking and sex between dawn and sunset and the sick and those traveling are exempt from fasting especially if it poses health risks.
Around the globe, Muslims observe Ramadan with a set of traditional rituals including family gathering at iftar, religious lessons, special evening prayer and helping the poor.
For Muslim groups, Ramadan is an occasion to educate their neighbours about the religious observance and the Islamic faith in general.
Each Ramadan, Muslims organize special iftar at Sala San Marco banquet hall on Friday night.
The banquet is usually attended by more than 200 people of different backgrounds and ethnicities gathered to break their fast for Ramadan.
The dinner event is now in its fifth year and Dualeh said participation has increased dramatically from its first year, when only 40 people attended.
“I was invited by a friend of mine in the Muslim community,” said Arie Chark, a rabbi in Ottawa who was attending for the first time.
“I think it’s extremely important because the only way to overcome contentious issues is to convene with each other, learn from each other, cherish each other and share each other’s perspectives.”
Serving ethnic food from different countries, the event’s international flavor was one of the main attractions some attendants.
“I love to learn about other cultures and how they’re different than mine,” Monica Wu, co-founder of Ottawa Asian Heritage Month, said.
Myrna Rootham, a retired Ottawa teacher, was one of the attendants.
“This is really about community building in the grassroots sense,” Rootham, an Anglican Canadian, said.
“And what’s important is that it doesn’t come from Canadians that have families that have been here since federation.
“This is coming from other communities trying to reach out and say, ‘We want to get to know you,’ and, ‘Come and see us.’ I think that is spectacular,” she added.
Dualeh said that building new community connections was a key target of their event.
“The joy people have when eating after fasting all day is what we want to spread to the community,” she said.
“It’s like living in the desert and not having water, and then all of a sudden coming across a pond.
“It’s that joy we want to convey to the community.”
Muslims are the fastest growing religious community in Canada, according to the country’s statistical agency, Statistics Canada.
Canada’s Muslim population increased by 82 per cent over the past decade – from about 579,000 in 2001 to more than 1 million in 2011. Muslims represent 3.2 per cent of Canada’s total population.
