Dubai: Regardless of where the sun is setting, a sense of community and family during Ramadan is what Muslims cherish the most.

And, in all corners of the world, Muslims are fasting and enjoying the large gatherings for iftar, group prayers at the mosque, and late night suhoor meals.

For German Aliya Hadler, it is only her second Ramadan ever, but it is an experience she’s enjoying immensely. The 33-year-old Dubai resident has been living in the UAE for four years. She converted to Islam two years ago.

Though she never experienced Ramadan in her home country, Hadler fills her Ramadan in the UAE with lectures and Quran reading whenever she can.

She said: “Normally, I’m at home reading the Quran. For iftar, I go with my friends to the mosque or the Islamic learning centre. We have nice group iftars with lots of other Muslim sisters from all over the world.”

At the Islamic learning centre, Hadler said that they end their fast with water and dates, but afterwards they enjoy an array of food from other traditions as well as Arabic foods such as mandi (a rice and meat dish).

“We break our fast with water and dates and then we pray maghrib or sunset prayer together. We all go to the mosque together and afterwards listen to a nice lecture. Sometimes at the learning centre we even invite non-muslims for iftar because it is a very nice and welcoming atmosphere for everyone to experience,” Hadler said of her Ramadan routine.

Similarly, Noor Spalekova from Slovakia is filling her iftars with traditional Ramadan treats.

While her job as a flight attendant dictates where she ends her fast such as Germany, Rome and Venice, she still tries to have water and dates first at iftar, as well as a cup of coffee.

The five-year Dubai resident converted to Islam over three years ago after experiencing the Muslim community first hand in the UAE.

She said: “I had many Muslim friends around me and I liked how they lived. I did my research and I learned what Islam was really about since people have a lot of misconceptions.”

For Palestinian-American Yasmine Kablaoui, the majority of her Ramadan experiences were in the US, where she lived with her family for 20 years.

She said: “Ramadan for us there was family oriented just as it is here in the UAE, but sometimes you’re in school or at work and you end your fast wherever you are. On Fridays or on the weekends, we would go to the mosque to have iftar and pray with the rest of the Muslim community in our area.”

Since moving to Sharjah over a year ago, Kablaoui likes that she can experience the Ramadan atmosphere anywhere in the UAE.

“You get to experience much more of the traditional Ramadan atmosphere, with Ramadan tents for example. There’s also much more family here as well,” said Kablaoui.

Family is another common Ramadan factor for Khalisah Stevens, a Malaysian-American Muslim in Dubai.

“When we were in Malaysia, fasting was very family-centric and traditional. We would all cook our main suhoor meal together. The night market in Malaysia was quite popular so we would end our fast with food from there,” Stevens said.

After breaking their fast, Stevens said that the family would gather to pray together or go to the mosque for prayers. Afterwards, they would return home to enjoy homemade suhoor.

When Stevens is with her family in Dubai, they maintain their Ramadan traditions as well.

She said: “We spend it at home, where my mum and I cook Malaysian or foods such as chicken satay or falafel. We’d end our fast, pray together, and come back home for suhoor — all as a family.”

SOURCE: gulfnews.com

THE City2Surf is hard enough when you are fit and young, but the 14-kilometre race will be a hard slog for the 56-year-old ambassador to Australia from the United Arab Emirates, Ali Nasser Al Nuaimi, who is fasting for Ramadan.

His Excellency Mr Nuaimi, an ex-military officer, is joining other Muslims observing the month of fasting, during which no food or water is consumed between dawn and dusk.

The Islamic faith encourages followers to contribute to charity and do good deeds during Ramadan.
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Mr Nuaimi is one of this Sunday’s top 10 individual fund-raisers, raising nearly $9000 so far for the Communities@Work’s Galilee School, which helps high school dropouts attain their year 10 certificate in the ACT.

Organisers said yesterday the City2Surf race, presented by Westpac and the biggest race of its kind in the world, was on track to raise $5 million for more than 650 charities.

”Fund-raising for City2Surf doesn’t close until three weeks after the event, so we’re still feeling positive that we will reach this year’s target of $5 million, and we’re aiming to have raised $4 million by this Sunday,” a spokesperson said.

Among the other religions represented at the City2Surf are Sister Leone Wittmack and the 40-strong Nuns on the Run team, who should be easy to spot in bright orange shirts with a running nun logo. They are raising money for Gorman House, a detoxification unit predominantly for homeless, drug and alcohol dependent people.

Sr Leone, the group mission leader of St Vincent’s Health Australia, has done the City2Surf 13 times, once in 92 minutes. She prepares by trying to keep fit. ”I do my bit of running and go to gym, do group classes, like Body Attack and a spin-bike class.”

Does she offer up a special prayer before the race? ”Dear God, help me to get to other end and make it up Heartbreak Hill.”

SOURCE:smh.com.au

The global Muslim community of 1.6 billion people agree on the core principles of their faith, but differ widely in religiosity and religious tolerance, according to a poll published Thursday.

“Muslims are unified by core beliefs and in core practices” like faith in a single God, believe in the Prophet Mohammed and fasting during Ramadan, but “there are differences, sometimes widely” in religious interpretation, James Bell, the principal author of the new Pew Research Center study, told AFP.

The report, which Bell said was “unprecedented” in scope, was conducted in over 80 languages in 39 countries that account for 67 percent of the world’s Muslim population.

Researchers interviewed around 38,000 people in 2008-2009 and 2011-2012 as part of a larger project on changes in global religions.

Between 85 and 100 percent of Muslims believe in God and revere the Prophet Mohammed, the survey said.

Eight of ten people interviewed in sub-Saharan Africa as well as South and Southeast Asia say religion is “very important.”But only six in ten agreed in sample countries of the Middle East and North Africa, and only one in two agreed in former Soviet countries like Russia and some Central Asian republics.

In the Middle East and North Africa, Muslims aged 35 and over are more religious than their younger counterparts. The opposite is true of religiosity in Russia.

In 39 countries surveyed, men are more likely than women to pray at a mosque, which Bell explained “is likely to do with social culture about how women publicly observe their worship.”

Still, “in most countries surveyed… women are about as likely as men to read (or listen to readings from) the Quran on a daily basis,” the report said.

A median figure of 63 percent of Muslims in surveyed countries believe there is only one way to interpret Islam. Only 37 percent of American Muslims agreed with that statement.

In countries where Sunnis and Shiites live side by side in large numbers — such as Lebanon and Iraq — believers are more likely to accept the other sect.

Conversely, in predominantly Sunni Pakistan, 41 percent of Muslims believe Shiites are not true Muslims.

A quarter of everyone surveyed “identify themselves neither as Sunni nor Shiite but as ‘just a Muslim.’”

Nine out of ten Muslims interviewed were born into the religion.

Conversion rates are highest in former communist countries, with seven percent of all converts in Russia. Many of the converts were raised in atheism.

“When it comes to conversion … it is not playing a large role in expanding or growing the number of Muslims around the world,” said Bell.

Pew plans to publish another survey soon on Muslims’ social and political attitudes.

SOURCE:ALARABIYA NEWS