Canada: The Harmony Iftar Dinner a Ramadan Feast for Everyone

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - 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 in Ottawa 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 non-Muslims 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. 8. Practicing Muslims fast from sun up until sun down. 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.” 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, and she said she’s an Anglican Canadian. She’s known Dualeh for a number of years, but has 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.” And Dualeh said that’s exactly why her team of volunteers gets together each year to put the dinner on. “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.”/149