Greater Columbus faith leaders break bread with iftar at Dublin mosque to mark Ramadan
Abdel Moneim Dobal, who serves as the imam at the Noor Islamic Cultural Center in Dublin, said his priority as a faith leader is to establish and promote peace among people and the community.
"We cannot grow in peace if people are fighting," said Dobal, a stack of Qurans sitting on his wooden desk.
That ongoing promotion of peace and community collaboration was evident Wednesday evening at the 18th Interfaith Iftar hosted by the Islamic center. The "iftar" is the breaking of the daily daytime fast during the holy Islamic month of Ramadan, which this year began Sunday and ends April 9.
The "masjid," also called a mosque, hosted the traditional interfaith dinner after a four-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Local faith leaders and attendees form different religious faiths gathered for an evening of celebration and worship.
Imran Malik, the interfaith director for The Center who has been active there since 2000, said the iftar dinner is a chance for attendees of all faiths and backgrounds to come together, break bread and focus on people's commonalities more than their differences.
"We can agree to disagree, but at the end of the day, we have to find those common goals where we can work together and add value to our communities," he said.
For Malik, what makes The Center a powerful pillar in the community is its emphasis on diversity, both in partnerships and in its weekly congregation. The center boasts a wide diversity of congregants from Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and other parts of the world, representing some 40 ethnicities from all seven continents.
'We are disappointed': Speakers, attendees express pain over Gaza
While the iftar dinner had its share of laughs and feelings of community, guests and speakers also expressed solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Since Hamas' surprise attack Oct. 7 killed between 1,100 and 1,400 people in Israel and resulted in about 250 Israeli hostages being taken, the Israeli war response has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians and displaced a majority of Gaza's population of 2.3 million people, according to estimates from Gaza's health ministry.
The figures from the health ministry, which had been controlled by Hamas, do not distinguish between Hamas combatants and civilians, but the vast majority of those killed are believed by United Nations officials to be civilians.
Ronney Abaza, the board chairperson for the masjid, expressed his disappointment Wednesday night over the hesitation by Columbus and Dublin city officials to approve resolutions or issue public calls for a ceasefire. He noted both cities have yet to release anything expressing solidarity or empathy with Palestinians.
"Our community is going through something very difficult, and we're disappointed," Abaza, who is Palestinian, told the audience. "Our hearts are broken, and this Ramadan is not like other Ramadans."
Noor Islamic Cultural Center
The Noor Islamic Cultural Center has a congregation of more than 6,000 that serves the Muslim community in Greater Columbus, officials said. According to Malik, The Center is the third largest in size in the Columbus area and offers programming such as sports, education, youth activities and supplementary Islamic education.
The Center has only a handful of employees, with the operations carried out with a volunteer force overseen by a board of directors. The center opened a satellite campus in New Albany, which became operational in February, and mosque leaders plan to build more smaller campuses serving the Muslim population in pockets of the Columbus area as the community grows.
@ShahidMeighan
smeighan@dispatch.com
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus leaders break bread to celebrate Ramadan at Noor center
