Iftar

The other week, on Saturday (August 27) to be more precisely, I was invited to Iftar. The Iftar is a special time during the Ramadan, but there is no exact date when Iftar is held – actually it's the meal you take after sunset, because during Ramadan you are not allowed to eat and drink anything but at this special time.

I am not a Muslim, but I study Turkish and I am also very interested in Islam and cultural gatherings. Hence I was invited by a dear friend of mine from my Turkish course and I don't regret going there, because it was really nice and I met many friendly people there. In fact one of them, a young men from Albania, I already met in the tram going there. I thought he was going there too, because I watched him pray. Therefore, I got out at the same stop he did, with the intention to follow him, as I didn't know the way. Well, he went in a different direction so I called my friend to guide me to "Minashalle", where the event took place. (Funny detail: the guy arrived only some minutes later and we had a nice chat after the Iftar, when we were cleaning up...)

The location wasn't that bad, because it was quite big, but it was unbelievably hot in there. There was no air condition beside two ventilators, which didn't help a lot. What helped a great deal were the fans we made by sticking together some leaflets with Scotch tape. I can barely imagine how it must have been for all the people who haven't had anything to eat or drink the whole day and then waiting in that hot room for the right time for dinner. Then, finally, the people were starting the prayer; me and some girls doing the preparations had a refreshment by having some cool Coke. Then we were serving the dinner consisting of grilled chicken, rice and salads. For dessert we had water melon, Baklava and many other home-made cakes. (Interesting detail: every household brought a little bit. If I remember correctly, seven families were responsible for the chicken. About 90 kg of chicken (thighs) were prepared. The rice was brought in in pots with a diameter of about 40 cm.)

After dinner, the some members of the MJÖ (Muslimische Jugend Österreich) – the organization which organized the event – were presenting the organization, some community projects and youth events they held. It was really interesting I have to say and I think they are doing a great job for the community.

The event was open to everyone who was interested, but of course there were mainly Muslim people. Most of them came from Egypt, Iraq, or any other Arab country. However, there were also Persian people and people from Kosovo and Albania or Turkey. For me it was great! Everyone was so nice to me and welcomed me warmly (As-salamu alaykum!). I have to thank Sarah again, at this point, for inviting me. I'm really grateful that I got the chance to meet this people and I hope I'll be invited to another event.

Later that night some of the boys were taking me to a room for praying near there and explained a lot of things to me. This room is actually just some container yet, because the ground is a construction site at the moment. They are building an Islamic Center with a mosque there. (After the praying we went back to "Minashalle" and helped the girls with cleaning up. There was so much food left. The rice was brought to a social facility for refugees. The rest (chicken, sweets) was free for everyone to take.)