REPORT | SKMI | St Kilda Multicultural IFTAR 2016 | Saturday 18 June 2016 | 5-7pm

[Edited extract from public address]

Neighbours coming together to share occasion, demystify and build bridges of friendship to overcome perceptions of separateness.  

An attentive audience received key note presentations by:

• Imam Mohsin Mohammed (Muslim Community)
• Serge Thomann (Deputy Mayor, City of Port Phillip)
• Avraham Schwarz (Jewish Community)
• Coralie Ling (Uniting Church Community) and 
• Carey Rohrlach (Buddhist Community).

Guests were treated to warm personable and official welcomes, discussion, interaction and explanations behind Ramadan, fasting and Iftar (breaking fast). Mosque tours, a wonderful array of catering from hosts and Asylum Seeker Resource Centre Catering. Invited speakers from Jewish, Christian and Buddhist traditions spoke about fasting and rituals.

Ramadan is the annual month of fasting. Siyaam in Arabic means "to abstain". In Islam, having first made the intention to fast, it means abstaining from things that breaks the Fast from dawn until sunset. The fast is prescribed so that practitioners may become pious. Some aspects are obligatory and others recommended. Iftar is the symbolic breaking of fast every night during Ramadan. Eid marks the end of Ramadan, usually in feast, coming together in festivity.

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St Kilda Multicultural IFTAR
Imam Mohsin Mohammed
Email mohsin_cse@yahoo.com

In collaboration with City of Port Phillip through Port Phillip Multifaith Network's Journey into Friendship | Sunday 19 June 2016