CRE CHAIR BREAKS FIRST FAST OF RAMADAN
(18 October 2004)

As part of the Commission for Racial Equality’s (CRE) programme on integration, Trevor Phillips, Chairman of the CRE, today broke the first fast of Ramadan with a Muslim family, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Trevor Phillips said: "Festivals give people the opportunity to celebrate and reflect on their own faith. They should remind us that Britain is a nation of different faiths for which we should have mutual respect and tolerance."

" 1.8 million British Muslims across the country are embarking today on Ramadan, an important month of prayer and fasting. I would like to wish them ‘Eid Mubarak’ or ‘Vaisakhi wishes. "At one of the holiest times in the Muslim calendar, the CRE is concerned about the continuing discrimination against Islam as a religion, and Muslims as believers. Of the five groups of Britons most vulnerable to prejudice today – Jews, Sikhs, Africans, Gypsies and Muslims – just one is not protected by law from discrimination. They are the Muslims, the largest of the five. "

"We have been calling on the Government for some time to protect minority religious groups and afford them the same rights as others. The CRE has seen at first hand, the rise in complaints from British Muslims over the past year or so which has revealed their lack of legislative protection. Unless they are given the same protection that every other Briton has come to expect, how can we expect British Muslims to feel protected and, more importantly, British? I applaud the Government’s promise to introduce legislation to rule out religious discrimination in goods and services."

ABOUT RAMADAN

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar during which all healthy adult Muslims must fast by abstaining from food, drink and other sensual pleasures from dawn to sunset every day. It is a time of worship, contemplation and spiritual purification.

Fasting (along with the declaration of faith, daily prayers, charity, and pilgrimage to Mecca) is one of the ‘five pillars’ of Islam. It cultivates virtues such as piety, devotion and obedience to God, patience, moderation, and satisfaction with what one has. It also fosters a sense of discipline, social belonging, generosity and compassion towards fellow human beings suffering hunger and deprivation.

Muslims believe that during the month of Ramadan, Allah (God) revealed the first verses of the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam to the Prophet Muhammad in the year 610. It is recommended that each Muslim read the entire Qur’an during this month and contemplate its meaning.

Ramadan is also traditionally the time when Muslims are asked to give a proportion of their earnings to charity. This is an obligation on all adult Muslims with the means and is another pillar of Islam known as ‘Zakat’.

The end of Ramadan is marked by one of the major festivals in the Islamic calendar, called ‘Eid al-Fitr’ or the Festival of the Breaking of the Fast. A special prayer and sermon are held in the morning of Eid. Afterwards, relatives and friends gather together to celebrate, share food and give gifts to children. This year, Eid al-Fitr falls on 15 November.