Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 31, 1994 TAG: 9403310162
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Roanoke's practicing Islamic community is small - the local masjid, or mosque, has about 75 regular participants, leaders there say. And the religion's most holy month - Ramadan - annually passes with hardly a ripple.
That was no different this year.
Ramadan began Feb. 12 and ended March 13. Most Roanokers might not have even given much thought to the holiday, had it not been for the Feb. 25 massacre of 30 Islamic worshipers by a Jewish settler at Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The murders took place in a mosque where Muslims were offering prayers - a daily religious obligation that is observed particularly strictly during the holy month.
The massacre affected Muslims throughout the world, and the controversy surrounding it continues to stymie peacemakers attempting to forge a new era of coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis.
Yet even such a tragedy could not long interrupt the observance of the sacred, according to Shafiq Majied of Roanoke's Masjid An-Nur.
Of course, "all God-fearing people everywhere" were appalled by the murders, Majied said in an interview last week, but the animosity that act engendered elsewhere was not evident in Roanoke.
In fact, almost immediately after the Hebron shootings, Majied said, members of both the Beth Israel Synagogue and Temple Emanuel called the masjid with condolences and expressions of abhorence of such actions.
The massacre "also impressed upon all people the very important idea of tolerance for all people," Majied said.
There is "no animosity" between Jews and Muslims in the Roanoke Valley, said Majied, who is chairman of the Shura Council of the masjid. The council is a leadership group selected by the masjid's members to plan and coordinate both internal matters, such as the observance of holidays, and external interactions with the community.
In Roanoke, as elsewhere around the world, Muslims practiced the traditional observance of the month of Ramadan, in which Mohammed is recorded as having received the inspiration of God for the Koran, the Islamic holy book.
Observant Muslims whose health permits practice daylight fasting - abstaining from food, drink, tobacco and sexual activity. Each day they read one-thirtieth of the Koran and carefully observe each day's five prayer times.
The fast and other disciplines of the month are not considered a punishment, but are designed to help believers understand the goodness of God's gifts.
by CNB