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Lady
Na`ilah |
Islam
has spread all over the world, so that it became the second
religion in Sweden and other countries in the Northern Pole. Lady
Na`ilah, the founder and head of Muslim Women Assembly in Sweden,
tells us about Ramadan ceremonies in Sweden and the problems that
face them there as a Muslim minority:
‘As
for the problem that face Muslims here, it is the issue of
sighting the new moon of Ramadan; this causes a lot of problem and
stirs arguments due to the lack of a center body on which all
Muslims will rely for this important issue. Yes, there is an
Islamic center here, but its services cannot cover all Muslims
dispersed in different places, besides, the Swedish media renders
no assistance. However, people mostly follow the crescent sighting
in Makkah, to know the beginning of Ramadan and the day of `Eid.
There
is a big difference between the way of celebrating Ramadan in all
Scandinavian countries and in other European countries, because
the number of Muslim minority in the former is somehow lower than
the number of Muslims in the latter. Yet, despite the few number
of Muslims here in Sweden, Ramadan forms a very special spiritual
occasion, which all Muslims nail-bitingly wait for from year to
year. No sooner had the Muslim scholars sighted the crescent of
Ramadan than people begin to congratulate one another and set
forth to perform Taraweeh Prayer at the nearest mosque, or say,
some places hired by Muslims for prayer, for there are no mosques.
In these places, Muslims hold sessions in which they remember
Allah throughout Ramadan.
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