“Where are you from?†Anyone living in, or even visiting Egypt is no stranger to this question. What you might be unfamiliar with is the look of utter disbelief that follows your answer. Disbelief and my nationality are close acquaintances as many Egyptians, admittedly most of whom were taxi drivers could not comprehend how I can possibly be British, given that I’m … brown. Or in War on Terror terms, “a suspect.†It is a fact widely overlooked in the Eastern world that there are some 2 million British Muslims. The beauty of this is the diversity of the community. Some of us are 2nd generation immigrants, some are converts, some, like me, are halfies. The point is that there is an ever-growing Muslim community in Britain, much to the dismay of our resident fascists, the British National Party. A report on Muslim news source Islamonline focuses on the alienation that British Muslims face and how according to one Muslim woman, the “sense of belonging has gone now since the Muslims have earned the ‘terrorist’ title.†This is true to a certain extent, however those who look closely at the young Muslim community will see how it has evolved beyond that and has formed a new identity; that of the British Muslim. This identity is utterly unique. These British Muslims are not like Saudi Muslims or Egyptian Muslims, they are not like most other British youths for obvious reasons and they are increasingly active in the political arena.  One young British Muslim, speaking to Bikya said that “We are obviously not terrorists but we are not apologists either; we are simply asserting our identity, politically, as an active faction of societyâ€. What this means is that Ramadan in the United Kingdom is quite different to Ramadan in the Arab world. For starters, at the beginning of Ramadan, iftar was at around 8.30pm, meaning the total fasting time was around 16 hours. And things will only get worse in the next few years until we have a pocket of 3 or so hours in which to guzzle down the iftar-suhoor eating bonanza. I guess we are finally paying for those years where the sun set at 4pm, before our stomachs even noticed they were empty. Ramadan for British Muslims can also lack the atmosphere that you find in the Arab world. If you want baklawa you have to go on a Lord of the Rings-esque mission to find those precious things. Not that Ramadan is just about the food, but the Egyptian ambiance is definitely missing over here. And if you live in a village, as opposed to a city, you’re probably the only Muslims around. However, go to your local mosque and you’ll find yourself in a veritable little Mecca. As much as my stomach might disagree with me right now, I know that for the spirit of Ramadan, what you really need – apart from a real muaddhan as opposed to an alarm clock that calls the adhan at sunset- is community. When you live in a little village called Llanybydder (as I did growing up) where there are more cows than people, you can find yourself just a little bit buggered. Luckily for me, with 5 siblings, my family made up practically half the population of Llanybydder so community wasn’t a real problem. It was more a case of minimizing the number of fasts we broke with our bad behaviour of sibling punch-ups and drink-spiking with washing-up liquid. And when that adhan clock called out, it was every Muslim for himself, in the fight for the biggest piece of food. Disclaimer: Such atrocious behavior is not representative of the British Muslim community in general. One British Muslim who spoke to Bikya said that “the bigger celebration here in the UK is Eid as it is the moment when all Muslims congregate in the mosque and this give rise a sense of community.†He added that “All men and women attend the mosque on this day, practically without exception.†In Egypt it is not uncommon for some people, some women at least, to choose not to go for Eid prayers. Ramadan in Britain differs from Ramadan in the Arab world in superficial ways, although I regard the lack of a consistent community-feeling to be rather important. However, much remains the same, which perhaps pays tribute to the universality of Ramadan. We have tarawih and Laylat ul-Qadr and we break our fasts with dates (except my brother who breaks his on gourmet chocolate). We also relish the specialty foods such as qamr al-deen and, indeed, baklawa. In order to spare myself from joining the Fellowship of the Baklawa, I brought 5 precious kilos back from Egypt on my last trip 3 weeks ago. It’s finished already. Iftar: The meal eaten at sunset in Ramadan Suhoor: The meal eaten just before sunrise in Ramadan Tarawih: Non-obligatory evening prayers given by Muslims during Ramadan Laylat ul-Qadr: The night when Muslims believe that the first verses of the Quran were revealed Qamr al-deen: A drink popular in Ramadan made from dried apricots BM
