Breaking the fast, raising awareness

CORRECTION APPENDED

“Salam Alaikum.”

Samiha Rahman, CC ’12, greeted students at Wednesday night’s Fast-a-thon, hosted by the Muslim Students Association.

Attendees broke the Ramadan fast with dates as students read from the Quran and recited traditional prayers. Roone Arledge held approximately 230 people who dined on hearty dinners of chicken, macaroni, rice, and salads.

“Waking up just before sunrise, I scrambled out of bed, ran to the kitchen, and threw together a healthy and hearty meal—a gigantic bowl of honey nut cheerios, a delicious blonde brownie, and one generously-sized chocolate chip cookie,” Rahman joked, recounting how it could sometimes be easy to lose sight of the purpose of fasting when filling up on the traditional pre-dawn meal. But Rahman said she appreciated her fast as a time for “clarity and reflection,” and an opportunity to empathize with the less fortunate.

The event brought students of all faiths together—some of whom spoke of their own experiences fasting—and organizers said they were excited about building partnerships with different student groups and organizations.

“We’ve never really done that before and I think that people are really responding really well to it … it definitely exceeded my expectations,” Rahman said.

The night was also a charity fundraiser for the Harlem Children’s Zone, a local non-profit organization that promotes community building and programs to keep kids in school. A representative from the organization thanked the Muslim Students Association for their outreach, as well as to promote HCZ programming.

While last year also had a charity tie-in, it was a more global organization. Wednesday night, the event’s leaders recognized the importance of lending a hand locally given the faltering economy—with a donations collection, t-shirt sale, and book raffle.

“We’ve never really done that before and I think that people are really responding really well to it,” Rahman said, “It definitely exceeded my expectations.”

news@columbiaspectator.com

**Correction: The original article incorrectly reported the number of attendees. A previous version also erroneously included a quote from Adil Djamalov.