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PRESS
RELEASE CHICAGO MUSLIM-AMERICANS HOST ANNUAL
RAMADAN INTER-FAITH IFTAR One of the featured speakers at this event will be his Eminence Cardinal Francis George of the Archdiocese of Chicago. Attendees will include leaders and representatives of Chicago’s diverse religions including the Muslim, Catholic, Protestant and Jewish communities. The Iftar and associated Muslim Maghrib (sunset) prayer will be followed by dinner and the main program, including featured speeches. Kareem Irfan, CIO Chairman and a featured speaker at the event stated: “This Ramadan Iftar has become the flagship Inter-Faith event of the Council. It is fitting that during Ramadan, the holiest of months for Muslims, we welcome our brothers and sisters of faith into our house of worship and hopefully into each other’s hearts. Our driving objective is to forge strong ties with our fellow Americans of faith by countering the ignorance, misperceptions and bigotry that threaten improved understanding amongst us.” ************************** Background on Ramadan: Ramadan is the holiest month on the Islamic calendar, during which Muslims abstain from food, drink and other sensual pleasures and distractions, from break of dawn to sunset. The fast is performed to obey God’s commandments, while learning discipline, self-restraint and generosity. Fasting, along with the declaration of faith, daily prayers, charity, and pilgrimage to Mecca are the five basic “pillars” of Islam. The beginning and ending of the Islamic lunar months depend on the actual sighting of the new moon. The start and end dates for Ramadan may vary as a result, and the month begins about eleven days earlier each year. The end of Ramadan is marked by the “Eid ul-Fitr,” or Feast of the Fast-Breaking, and will be celebrated on November 14, 2004 by communal prayers across Chicago’s numerous Islamic centers and mosques. The Quran, Islam’s revealed text, states: “O ye who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you, as it was prescribed to those before you, that ye may (learn) Piety, Fear and Remembrance of God...Ramadan is the (month) in which was sent down the Quran, as a guide to mankind, also clear (Signs) for guidance and judgment (between right and wrong). So every one of you who is present (at his home) during that month should spend it in fasting...” (Chapter 2, verses 183 and 185). ******************************** Event Details: Thursday, October 28, 2004 5:30 p.m.: Reception 5:50 p.m.: Iftar (breaking of fast) & Maghrib (sunset) prayer. Dinner and program to follow. Islamic Cultural Center 1810 Pfingsten Road Northbrook, Illinois 60062 (Directions from Chicago: Tri-State, 294 North, exit at Willow Rd. East; 1 mile down Willow Rd., Left of Pfingsten, go 1 mile to Islamic Cultural Center on left) NOTE: ATTENDANCE BY THE PUBLIC IS BY INVITATION ONLY. MEMBERS OF THE PRESS MAY ATTEND WITHOUT AN INVITATION IN THEIR JOURNALISITC CAPACITY PLEASE CONTACT: Farhan Younus, fyounus@ciogc.org, Ph. 630-926-5566 -END- ********************************************************* |
