GIVING IFTAR A WHIRL
Kamil Tekelioglu performs the Whirling Dervish during Friday night’s Iftar dinner at Sala San Marco to celebrate the breaking of the fast of Ramadan. See the story in
A Muslim woman wearing a hijab sits at a table talking to a Caucasian woman with bright red hair. Across the room a rabbi is in conversation with a bearded Muslim man. Nearby, Asian and South Asian women are chatting.
It’s a consistent scene at the Sala San Marco banquet hall on Friday night, where more than 200 people of different backgrounds and ethnicities gathered to break fast for Ramadan.
They’re all at the Harmony Iftar dinner, an event held each year to introduce nonMuslims to a long-standing Muslim tradition.
“We started the event to create awareness and to promote harmony and peace between different communities,” said Ayan Dualeah, who helped organize the dinner. “It’s so Muslims and non-Muslim people in the community can join together and learn about each other.”
Ramadan began on July 10 and continues for 30 days until Aug. 7. Practising Muslims fast from sunrise until sunset.
The dinner event is now in its fifth year and Dualeh said participation has increased dramatically from the 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.”
Before dinner, speakers addressed the room to speak about what Ramadan is and discuss the importance of building community. And then, following evening prayer, guests feasted on Turkish and Indian cuisine.
According to Dualeh, the event serves ethnic food from different countries each year.
The international flavour of the evening was one of the main attractions for Monica Wu, co-founder of Ottawa Asian Heritage Month.
“I love to learn about other cultures and how they’re different than mine,” she said.
Myrna Rootham is a retired Ottawa teacher who said she’s an Anglican Canadian. She’s known Dualeh for a number of years, but never had the chance to attend an Iftar dinner.
“This is really about community building in the grassroots sense,” she 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.”