Govt reinforces its respect for Muslim community

KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

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Gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tives used a pub­lic Eid-ul-Fitr dawah event in San Fer­nan­do on Sat­ur­day to reaf­firm re­spect for the Is­lam­ic faith and pro­mote un­der­stand­ing with­in the wider na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty.

Speak­ing at the Caribbean Dawah As­so­ci­a­tion’s Eid-ul-Fitr out­reach at Gulf City Mall, San Fer­nan­do West MP and Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Michael Dowlath said the Gov­ern­ment’s pres­ence re­flect­ed its re­spect for the Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty.

He shared a brief sto­ry of grow­ing up next to a masjid and ob­serv­ing Is­lam­ic tra­di­tions in his neigh­bour­hood, not­ing that fast­ing car­ries ben­e­fits for both the body and the mind by en­cour­ag­ing dis­ci­pline and fo­cus on God.

Recog­nis­ing the pres­ence of Deputy House Speak­er Dr Aiy­na Ali, Dowlath said their joint ap­pear­ance as par­lia­men­tar­i­ans sig­nalled the re­spect they have for the Mus­lim faith.

As Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion, he al­so ex­tend­ed best wish­es to stu­dents prepar­ing for the Sec­ondary En­trance As­sess­ment (SEA), not­ing that the coun­try’s fu­ture rests with them.

“As we ed­u­cate them in our tra­di­tions, our re­li­gious val­ues, I look for­ward to them go­ing on to be the fu­ture lead­ers of this coun­try,” Dowlath said.

Ali al­so de­liv­ered ear­ly Eid greet­ings on be­half of the Gov­ern­ment, de­scrib­ing Ra­madan as a sa­cred pe­ri­od for Mus­lims.

“It re­minds us of the en­dur­ing val­ues of com­pas­sion, pa­tience, hu­mil­i­ty and ser­vice to oth­ers. In our beau­ti­ful mul­ti­cul­tur­al and mul­tire­li­gious so­ci­ety, this pe­ri­od al­so of­fers an op­por­tu­ni­ty for all cit­i­zens to re­flect on the im­por­tance of uni­ty and mu­tu­al re­spect.”

For­mer min­is­ter of com­mu­ni­ty de­vel­op­ment Nizam Baksh al­so ad­dressed the gath­er­ing, en­cour­ag­ing Mus­lims to share the mes­sage of Is­lam in their com­mu­ni­ties. He not­ed that Is­lam is the world’s fastest-grow­ing re­li­gion.

“What­ev­er we can do to en­cour­age broth­ers and sis­ters to our way of life, with peo­ple who ad­mire us from the out­side, say­ing we are dif­fer­ent from oth­ers when it comes to our re­li­gious teach­ings and prac­tices.”

Dawah means “in­vi­ta­tion” or “call.” In an Is­lam­ic con­text, it refers to invit­ing peo­ple to un­der­stand, em­brace or re­turn to the teach­ings of Is­lam.

At Sat­ur­day’s event, or­gan­is­ers host­ed an if­tar where non-Mus­lims were in­vit­ed to ex­pe­ri­ence the break­ing of the fast along­side Mus­lims. Tra­di­tion­al items used to break the fast were of­fered, in­clud­ing pies, samosas, dates, wa­ter and fruits. Mus­lims typ­i­cal­ly break their fast at sun­set be­fore of­fer­ing the Maghrib prayer and then share their evening meal.

Booths will re­main at the mall over the next week, dis­trib­ut­ing pam­phlets about Is­lam and copies of the Eng­lish Qur’an. Items such as meals to break the fast and Is­lam­ic at­tire will al­so be avail­able.

This year’s theme fo­cus­es on the life and teach­ings of the Prophet Muham­mad.