Ramadan this year gives social outcasts to lead a new lease of life.

MOGADISHU — Ramadan came up this year for Somalis carrying the breeze of charity and hope of repentance for many of the social outcasts, with mosques opening the doors for beggars and thieves to put them on the right direction.

"We help this cross-section of society, who were forced to go astray due to circumstances beyond their control and deplorable living conditions, to return to the fold," sheik Omar Abdi, head of Omar bin Abdul-Aziz Center for Dawa and Youth Education told IslamOnline.net Saturday, October 7.

The center offers iftar banquets for the homeless and thieves. After the meal, comes the time for the guidance session.

Scores of social outcasts flock every day to the center, driven by hunger and the hope to find a helping hand to lift them from their abyss.

Thieves, bandits and other criminals further find solace in post-iftar sermons, which remind them they always stand the chance of repenting.

They are educated about the highly rewarded heartfelt repentance and the basic tenets in Islam like prayers and fasting.

"The sermons pay off," Abdi said jubilantly. "Many of these young chaps have found a new lease of life thanks to these sermons."

"We shouldn’t leave these people to lose the way .. someone must give them a hand."

The center is affiliated with the Islamic Institute of Somalia's Scholars, which has strong connections to the powerful Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia.

Most of the outcasts belong to the displaced families in the capitol who suffer miserable conditions.

Home to about 10 million largely impoverished people, Somalia has lacked almost all the trappings of a functional state, such as national systems of education, healthcare and justice, for the past 16 years.

Warlords had controlled the capital of the Horn of Africa country since the 1991 overthrow of president Mohamed Siad Barre.

But the Somalis started enjoying rare moments of peace and security since the Islamic Courts rose to power by capturing Mogadishu and other key areas in June from the US-backed warlords.

Despite an interim peace accord, signed in Khartoum on September 4, tensions between the Courts and the transitional government are high and the two sides are at fierce odds of the proposed deployment of foreign peacekeepers.

Charity Oriented

Charity is also a key characteristic of the holy month in Somalia with people competing to reach out to the less-fortunate and the poor, showing the spirit of solidarity.

"Rich Somalis are covering the expenses of iftar banquets and share themselves the meal with the poor in a sigh of solidarity," said the imam of al-Khaleq mosque, in southern Mogadishu.

IOL correspondent says that Somalis have increasingly become self-dependent with the well-off shouldering the responsibility of catering for the needy and natural disaster victims without having to wait for foreign aid.

Businessmen have, in effect, joined forces with mosques and charities this Ramadan in holding generous iftar banquets.

"This year we are carrying out a major iftar charity thanks to support from a number of businessmen," Fareh Arabi of "Ramadan Kareem" charity said.

The charity circulated leaflets across the capital, urging the kindhearted to contribute to the iftar banquet.

"Brother and sister, make sure that you don’t miss the blessings of Ramadan by donating for the iftar banquet. Half a dollar really matters," reads one leaflet.