Word: ramadan
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...setting much earlier in January; do you remember? The cold evening chill would quiet the campus by five o'clock every day. You were studying for finals, probably. But I was in Boylston Hall, breaking my fast with the Harvard Islamic Society (HIS). It was the middle of Ramadan, a holy month signifying the revelation of the Koran--a time when millions of Muslims all over the world commit to day-long fasts from food and water. And for the first time, I was doing it on my own--without my family--here at Harvard...
...stated purpose of HIS, as explained in the Unofficial Guide, speaks directly to this need: they organize daily prayers, multicultural dinners, scholar's lectures, sports activities, Ramadan iftars (break fasts), even a bimonthly newsletter. Each activity adds to a sense of community. And a great deal of effort is devoted to promoting interaction through gatherings of all shapes and sizes. However, the importance of interaction is easy for a religious organization to forget; it was exactly the casual interaction that was lacking from my HIS experience...
Fortunately, a few weeks after Ramadan, a Friday night discussion group changed my ambivalent attitude towards HIS. I sat beside about 30 other students, the largest gathering of Muslims I had yet come across at Harvard. I listened to them all make suggestions about strengthening the HIS community. And I realized that, in our enthusiasm to strengthen our personal faith, we had forgotten about the communal foundations on which that faith must be grounded...
...were completely unnoticed by the international media. Indeed, the number of deaths and other casualties says nothing about the scale of the war. Yesterday alone, Hizbullah launched unsuccessful attacks on more than 20 Israeli outposts in the security-zone to mark the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Neither a military nor a political solution to the question of Israel's security has been found in the 15 years that Israel has been in southern Lebanon, and not for lack of trying. In desperation from ongoing casualties in the security zone, there has recently even been discussion...
...less than that of a coffeehouse, an opera or a drag night. While we hold all of these communal activities (whether art or debauchery) in high esteem, we cannot regard religious observance with a lower degree of honor. Raise the nativity scene. Light the menorah. Celebrate a public Ramadan. Religious students should be encouraged by house masters and the administration to express themselves in this way, and funds within the budgets of house social committees should be made available for such purposes...