On Tuesday, members of the local Muslim community celebrated Eid-al-Fitr, which marks the end of the month-long dawn-to-sunset fasting of Ramadan. This year, the celebrations started on a slightly different note, as non-Muslim members of the community were also invited to join the festivities and watch the sighting of the moon on Monday night at the Masjid Al Noor mosque.
Ahmed Hasturk, the local Director of the Universal Islamic Cultural Trust (UICT), explained that the UICT had started a few new traditions in an effort to bring communities together. One of these was to invite families to bring a picnic basket and enjoy the sighting of the new moon with them. It also gave an opportunity to Muslim families to break their fasting period while relaxing in the gardens at the mosque.
Members of the Muslim community celebrated Ramadan the past month, which includes a fasting period from dawn to sunset. During Ramadan, a lot of emphasis is placed on charitable work in the community. "During the fasting period, we gathered together every Sunday at the Masjid Al Noor gardens to cook food and distribute these to more than 200 families, which included Muslim and non-Muslims families," said Hasturk.
The UICT also runs an Islamic pre-school facility at the mosque, which is the only one of its kind in town. "We provided iftar (dinner) for all the parents of the children at the school one night as part of the Ramadan activities," Hasturk said.
The UICT is an internationally registered non-profit organisation that, among their activities, also provides boarding schools for less-privileged children.
Monday's sighting of the moon introduced the new month, which means that the Eid celebrations could commence. "The tradition of bringing the community together is a big one in Cape Town and the UICT hopes to make this an annual gathering," Hasturk added.