Saturday 1st June 2019
As always, this year AMI’s annual Big Iftar brought together people of all faiths and non for the ceremonial breaking of the fast in the month of Ramadan. We were honoured to have representatives from the Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, and Islamic faiths share their thoughts, prayers, and poems with us. All those who attended thoroughly enjoyed singing along with Revd. Richard Tetlow, and listening to the Sikh ardaas by Suki Wahiwalla and Hindu bhajan by Acharya Yadavji, as well as the beautiful Qur’anic recitation by Qari Mohammad Ali.
With the alarming increase of knife crime in the UK, the theme of this year’s Big Iftar focused on tackling knife crime. Altaf Hussain, from Muslim aid, spoke of our civic duty to engage with various different groups and organisations to respond to violent crime collectively. Trustee for the World Congress of Faith & Ambassador for the Universal Peace Federation, Dina Nandu Mandalia, and Prama Yadav, who is a pharmacist and beauty pageant title holder, also shared their wisdom. Yan Lovelock recited some poetry on conflict and strife inspired by the Buddhist philosophy. The program concluded with a talk from the Director of AMI, Shaykh Arif Abdul-Hussain and a raffle draw for one lucky winner.
Following the congregational prayers in the gardens, everyone enjoyed a delicious meal together. We were extremely grateful to Vegware for generously donating all the plant-based disposables used and helping us to reduce plastic pollution. We were also joined by Clifton Road Food Bank who collected monetary and consumable donations during the event for the less fortunate.