Activities for Islamic holy month include fasting and intense prayer
By DANIELLE NADLER
VIEW STAFF WRITER
Top, Ahmad Fayed, right, prays with his family at their home on Clayton Street. Left, the Fayeds, from left, Fagr, 6, Rahma, 3, Fatma Alazab and Ahmad, eat their first meal of the day after prayer. During Ramadan, Muslims fast from dusk to dawn. PHOTOS BY VIC VALBUENA BARENG/VIEW
VIC VALBUENA BARENG/VIEWAhmad Fayed reads the Quran before prayer.
Top, Ahmad Fayed, right, prays with his family at their home on Clayton Street. Left, the Fayeds, from left, Fagr, 6, Rahma, 3, Fatma Alazab and Ahmad, eat their first meal of the day after prayer. During Ramadan, Muslims fast from dusk to dawn. PHOTOS BY VIC VALBUENA BARENG/VIEW
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The alarm sings early this month at the Fayed household.
By 4:15 a.m., a half hour before sunrise, the family of four is gathered around the table in their two-bedroom apartment to eat fruit, yogurt, grains and juice; the last food or drink Ahmad Fayed and Fatma Alazab will have until sunset.
The Fayeds and the estimated 18,000 Muslims in Las Vegas have abstained from food, drink and other pleasures from sunrise to sunset since Sept. 1 in observance of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month.
This is the Fayed family's second Ramadan away from their home country, Egypt. Just like most of Las Vegas' first-generation American Muslims, the Fayeds have made an extra effort to hold on to the Muslim traditions from their homeland.
Their former Egyptian city, Cairo, turns into a colossal block party the evening before Ramadan. Children make decorations that are draped between houses, and people sing in the streets, explained Ahmad Fayed. Even Christians and Jews congratulate their Muslim neighbors on the holy month.
"You don't feel the celebration here," said Ahmad Fayed, who moved to Las Vegas a year ago to study in UNLV's mechanical engineering doctorate program.
Fayed's two daughters, 6-year-old Fagr and 3-year-old Rahma, cut and pasted colored paper to adorn their living room walls in remembrance of their usual celebrations.
The family settles for an Internet alarm to indicate the time for their five daily prayers. In Egypt and most other Muslim countries, a loud Arabic song is projected from mosques to announce prayer.
The Fayeds are not alone in their modified Ramadan celebrations.
Most of the city's Muslims have had to get used to holy days away from their home countries, said Yasser Moten of the Council on American-Islamic Relations of Nevada.
Las Vegas Muslims have come from all over the world, and they each come with different customs.
"For many of the immigrants, when they're in their other country, the entire community is fasting," Moten said. "And when they come to the United States, it's really hard for a lot of these immigrants to hold on to that celebratory environment."
Thousands of Muslims meet at Las Vegas' five mosques each evening throughout Ramadan to pray and break their fast. Moten said the communal meals give Muslims a chance to celebrate their religious traditions together.
Fayed says he's found community at his neighborhood mosque, the Islamic Information Center at 5383 S. Maryland Parkway.
He heads to the mosque once in the morning and once in the evening, and if he's not in a class, he'll stop over at noon for prayer.
"Everything you do during Ramadan, you get rewarded 70 times more," he said with a grin. "So we do everything we can with excitement."
Perhaps few would rejoice in the face of a month of little food, intense prayer and discipline. But Ahmad and Fatma Fayed said Muslims look forward to Ramadan all year long.
"It's a good opportunity to have all your sins forgiven," said Fatma Fayed, who first fasted in Egypt at 7 years old. "We can start over."
Muslims will end Ramadan with a daylong celebration on Sept. 30 called Eid-Al-Fitr.
ISLAMIC HOLY MONTH
The Islamic Information Center, 5383 S. Maryland Parkway, invites Muslims to dinner, followed by prayers daily at sunset during Ramadan.
Each day, the fast is broken one minute earlier than the preceding day. Today, the fast breaks at 6:49 p.m.
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