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November 18, 2001

Observing the fast of Ramadan

By SUSAN WRIGHT | News-Journal Staff Writer

DAYTONA BEACH — For 16-year-old Jamilah Awadalla, Ramadan, the month-long fast, is the "best time of the year."

"I really look forward to it," she says, her glowing face framed by her hajib, or scarf.

The daughter of Ahmed Awadalla, the imam or religious leader at the mosque in Daytona Beach, says she loves the entire month, despite the daylight austerity when Muslims are forbidden to eat or drink from sunrise to sunset. After sunset, however, she gets to break the day's fast every evening at the Islamic Center of Daytona Beach with her friends and their families in an evening meal and social gathering.

"We pray and we break the fast with a bite of a date or a sip of water," she says. But after that the meal can be anything they'd normally eat - including hamburgers and hot dogs - and the teenagers and their families get to hang out together casually, without ceremony. It's a bit like having a church social every night for a month.

This year Ramadan was due to start Friday or Saturday - the moon determines the day the fast starts. Awadalla says, "We look at the moon and when it is a crescent, we start the fast." Eid al-Fitr will be exactly one lunar month later either Dec. 16 or 17.

But this year, it may not be quite the same as it has been in other years.

This year, Eid al-Fitr, the holiday of the feast at the end of Ramadan, may not be celebrated as usual with a barbecue picnic in the park.

This year, the month-long fast will be a little more low key and somber, with the conversations at the meals focused on the war in Afghanistan - and the repercussions for Muslims here. This year, the other Muslims at the mosque, about 500 all together, have worries and concerns they didn't dream of until Sept. 11.

In the past few weeks, they say they feel they have to justify themselves and their religion in a way they never did before.

Jamilah's father says he knows of many of his brother and sister Muslims who feel saddened by the events of Sept. 11 and stigmatized by their fellow citizens for the act of terror that is not part of the religion they practice and love.

"Suicide is not according to Islam. Suicide to kill thousands of innocent people who have done nothing is not according to Islam," Imam Awadalla insists.

During Ramadan, they will feel even closer to their fellow Muslims than ever, the family says. Awadalla, a native of Egypt with a degree in archeology from the University of Cairo, became an Imam, or teacher, less than two years ago. He also owns a business and home schools his daughter, not for any religious reasons but because she was worried about violence in the schools.

Wearing the long white, cassock-like garb of a religious Muslim, he explains that the Ramadan fast is not an optional part of their faith, but one of the five pillars of Islam.

"But fasting is not just to stop you from drinking and eating. You are to fast from any evil-doing or sins, no back-biting or evil gossip, no speaking in anger to anyone, even if you are provoked," he says. "If you are provoked, the prophet, peace be upon him, gave us the answer to give. You must say, 'I am fasting. I am fasting.' "

Yes, he says, he has said that to people during Ramadan.

Awadalla's wife, Rachel, who is a convert to the Muslim faith whom he met when he came to Findlay University in Ohio for graduate school, says Ramadan is a very meaningful time for her, a time to grow in the faith.

Eid ul-Fitr is, she says, a "kind of a beautiful social day for all Muslims to be together and celebrating the whole month of Ramadan. That's the day to wear your finest outfits."

Her husband is quick to say, "That's tradition, not religion."

All three agree, this year Ramadan and Eid ul-Fitr, as a spiritual and social experience will be more meaningful to them than ever.

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