Muslim students at UM prepare for Ramadan Monthlong Islamic holiday receives extra notice since Sept. 11tragedies

ORONO – When Sofian Kanan began his studies at the University of Maine two years ago, he lived with a local family. They understood little about his Muslim faith.

All they knew about Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that begins at sunrise today, was that it involved fasting during daylight hours.

“They thought I would starve myself all day and eat all night doing nothing but praying and reading a holy book,” the 33-year-old chemistry research associate from Jordan said earlier this month. “To them, I was killing myself.

“They were surprised when I did not stop working and that I prayed with other Muslims in the evening instead of alone in my room.”

Since Sept. 11, plenty of non-Muslim Mainers have been curious about the practice of Islam. Members of the small Muslim community based in Orono have been inundated with questions, especially during the past week as followers of Islam prepared for Ramadan.

While some local Muslims believe this year’s observance of Ramadan will be significant because of the tragedies of Sept. 11, most believe that it will continue to be the traditional holiday it has been for hundreds of years.

“Ramadan is one of the pillars of our faith,” said Mohammed Farsi, 22, a UM student from Saudi Arabia studying chemical engineering. “It is a good chance to question ourselves about what we have done over the past year for the sake of God and to ask what more we can do for the sake of God.

“I think it is going to be totally different this year. Everybody knows about Islam. People are asking about it. Before [Sept. 11], non-Muslims didn’t pay much attention.”

Essam Al Shallabi, a 23-year-old senior majoring in mechanical engineering, disagreed.

“Ramadan is Ramadan,” he said. “It does not matter where we are. We will pray. We will gather to break the fast, and we will be with each other. It will be like other years.”

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic year. It begins and ends with the sighting of the new moon. During this month, all healthy adult Muslims abstain from food, drink, smoking and sexual activity from sunrise to sunset. Ramadan is to be devoted to reflection and spiritual discipline, as well as the reading of the Quran, which was revealed to the prophet Mohammed by Allah during the final days of Ramadan.

Many of the local Muslims said that the most difficult thing about observing Ramadan in Maine was being so far from their families.

In the Muslim world, extended families gather often to break the fast at the end of the day. Ramadan ends with Id-al-Fitr, a celebration that includes special foods, sweets and gift giving and lasts three days in some Muslim countries. Ramadan is expected to end at sundown Dec. 14 or 15.

For more than 20 years, it has fallen upon Mahmoud El-Bergearmi, a food safety expert with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, to make members of the Muslim community far from home at Ramadan a part of his family in Bangor. Finding worship space and adequate facilities on campus where the community could break the daily fast together grew more and more difficult over the years.

The thing most Muslims said they were looking forward to this Ramadan was being in their own mosque in Orono. The modular building near the university was scheduled to be completed sometime during November, according to El-Bergearmi. He was uncertain, however, if the building would be ready in time for the first week of Ramadan.

“Opening up our mosque will add more meaning to our lives and our prayers in Maine,” said Ayman Al Jammaz, 22, of Saudi Arabia, a senior in computer engineering. “Besides that, the only difference this year is that we will pray for the innocent people who died on Sept. 11 and those who are dying in Afghanistan.

“We will pray that this war will stop and the of killing innocent people will stop.”