French Muslims pray before having their Iftaar meal

By Hadi Yahmid, IOL Correspondent

PARIS, November 5 (IslamOnline.net) – Encouraging charity during the holy fasting month of Ramadan, a France-based Islamic organization has distributed lots of money boxes among shops and supermarkets, drawing unprecedented Muslim and non-Muslim contributions.

Sponsored by Le Secours Islamique (Islamic relief) the move is primarily designed to aid poor Muslims and non-Muslims in France.

"Le Secours Islamique is booming during Ramadan, thanks to its money-box campaign and charity-encouraging calls through radios broadcast to Arab communities, newspapers and lectures," Gamal Masrawi, the organization's public relations officer, told IslamOnline.net.

He said the campaign appealed also to non-Muslims, whether individuals or organizations.

"The other day I received a letter with a check enclosed from a non-Muslim French woman who sought to encourage your activities," Masrawi recalled.

On other charity works sponsored by the organization during Ramadan, he added that they are distributing food packages among the poor in different French cities.

"It also funds a program called "students Iftaar," which provides Iftaar meals to Muslim university students who cannot afford it," he added.

He said the program was launched in 2002, adding that the organization has broadened its umbrella in 2003 to include five major university hostels across France.

"It is also the custom for the organization to prepare 'friendship meals' every year to be given out to the hungry and the displaced," Masrawi asserted. 

He said the tradition dates back to 1994 in the southern city of Bordeaux, but it reached out now to many of French cities.

"Our Ramadan charity also covers prisons…We send parcels containing writing materials, stamps, etc., for the inmates," Masrawi said.

Overseas Charity

Masrawi also said the organization's charity is not only confined to France but expanded to include more than 20 world countries.

"In 1994, the organization launched a program called 'Iftaar for the hungry,' sending food packages to the needy in war- and conflict-torn countries," he elaborated.

He indicated that the organization had distributed last Ramadan 100,000 packages to the benefit of some half a million people in more than 22 countries, including Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, India, Chechnya and Albania.