Ramadan in 2026

0:00It's the Bryant LaRosho on WNYC Good Morning again, everyone. So as we head toward the end of Ramadan, we want to open up the phones for Muslim listeners now to say what you've been thinking about during the Holy Month this year. How much has this year's observance been more of a personal reflection for you about things in your life or how much have you been thinking of anything in politics or society outside yourself. Both is an acceptable answer. 212433 WNYC 212433 9692. Again, as we head toward the end of Ramadan, we want to open the phones for Muslim listeners now to say what you've been thinking about during the Holy Month this year. So political about the war, about Imam Dhani, or whatever, 212433 9692, call or text.

1:06And one thing locally, of course, is that New York City has a Muslim mayo for the first time. I'm sure it's symbolically important to a lot of people, a major first like this, for any group, certainly any minority and often marginalized group, always is symbolically important. And the mayor has been making Ramadan visits to various communities in the city all month. Have you been at any of those? What was that like? 212433 WNYC 212433 9692. And also, is he making any changes that you find meaningful yet at the policy or other governing level, not just symbolic, 212433 WNYC 433 9692. Here, for example, is a short clip of the mayor hosting Iftar, that's the evening breaking of the fast for city workers on March 12th.

2:09And it's not every day that we see in one room the sheer breadth of Muslim life in New York City. The many languages spoken, the different cultures lived, the many soccer teams we root for, in good times and in bad. And I will say it once more, Ramadan Mubarak, my friends. So mayor Mamdani there a few days ago, and also with respect to Mamdani being mayor, Muslim listeners, how are you processing or how are you personally experiencing the blowback? The Islamophobia. I know Muslims are a Muslim friend in particular who says, you know, Islamophobia, everybody says Islamophobia, but we should just say anti-Muslimism, the bigotry, the hate that's been a factor in the city. And the whole country too since Mamdani was elected, are you experiencing it personally or how are you processing it, this environment, 2, 1, 2, 4, 3, 3, 9, 6, 9, 2, and I'll ask

3:16that one again. So you know you're invited on this. How are you processing or how are you personally experiencing the blowback, the Islamophobia, the anti-Muslimism, the bigotry and hate that's been a factor in the city. And the whole country too since Mamdani was elected, it's always there to some degree like anti-Semitism is always there and racism is always there in other forms of hate, but there was a big surge in the public expression of it 25 years ago after 9-11, in a way that's never gone away, but there's been this new big surge of it around not an attack like in that case, but an election, the election of Zoran Mamdani as New York City mayor. So you're invited to call in and tell a story if that's affected you as a Muslim who was listening right now and if had has played any role in how you're experiencing Ramadan or praying during Ramadan or just thinking and feeling about things in this past month.

4:17And at the same time Mamdani was elected and wasn't even that close and New York is not a majority Muslim city, so many non-Muslims went out and voted for the first Muslim mayor, even though he is Muslim and they are not, maybe that's giving you hope as much as or just in addition to however the backlash is dismaying. You tell us 2-1-2-4-3-3, WNIC, 2-1-2-4-3-3, 9-6-9-2, there's also of course the ongoing war in Gaza, but now also the war in Iran and Lebanon has that been a source of Ramadan reflection for you in any direction. It's an Islamic regime of course in Iran, but it's also so widely seen as a horrible, murderous, repressive regime by so many Iranians who are Muslim, so how are you processing all of that in addition to the U.S. and Israeli rule or anything else about what it's been

5:18like this month or how you might remember Ramadan 2026 for yourself in the context of your personal life or the world or you can talk about some of the traditions of the month and kind of get personal that way. Some of the foods that you eat before dawn or after sundown and by the way aren't you glad Ramadan wasn't in July this year when you would have to have your so hurmio at 4 in the morning and then wait for the iftar until 9 at night or there are certain passages from the Quran that you've read or found special meaning in this year, any specific acts of charity which is a Ramadan thing or anything else. It's open phones for Muslim listeners to say what you've been thinking about during the holy month this year 212433 WNYC call or text 212433 9692 and joining us to help take your calls is Dr. Sheikh Fiaz Jaffa, Executive Director of the Islamic Center and Chaplain

6:19at NYU Dr. Jaffa is the first full-time shea Muslim chapter ever appointed at American University I understand and so Dr. Jaffa welcome to WNYC and Ramadan Kareem. Thank you so much Brian thanks for having me happy to be here. Can I ask you a stupid non-Muslim question first? I hear Ramadan Mubarak and I hear Ramadan Kareem and I'm sure a lot of other non-Muslim listeners do too are they the same is it call and response is one better than the other Ramadan Mubarak and Ramadan Kareem. Both of them are generally used interchangeably Ramadan Mubarak literally is translated as you know have a blessed Ramadan and Ramadan Kareem something very very similar may may you have a noble noble month so many times someone will say Ramadan Mubarak and the response will be Ramadan Kareem but also culturally familiarly we we diversify.

7:20What's the iftar experience been like at NYU this month the after sunset evening meal? Yeah it's been really really meaningful to spend time with so many diverse body of our students who are navigating life and education relationships and of course everything that is happening in the world you know we're privileged to be here in New York City and see the diversity of the Muslim community in such a unique way but without doubt I think that over the last couple of weeks especially with everything happening sociopolitically across the world there's certainly been a little bit more of a heaviness that has really impacted so many members of our community with everything taking place locally this Ramadan as I expressed in the intro you know is historic for New York City having its first Muslim mayor who's been publicly breaking fast with city workers and praying at rikers but there is also

8:23all the blowback what what has that visibility and all of that context meant for the NYU community members who you've been dealing with how do you find it expressed either you know or emotionally or experientially or for that matter spiritually by the people you're dealing with and you can speak for yourself as well yeah I think there's two ways to look at it you know like you mentioned in the intro as well there is this sort of you know symbolism with so much that the Muslim community in New York City has had to experience over the last 25 years and there is this really you know unique full circle moment where the mayor of the biggest city in the world is Muslim and you know is breaking fast and you know consistently on the news for you know this public displays of celebrating you know the month of Ramadan and I think for so many people for so many young people you know who are navigating issues pertaining to identity they don't have to

9:24necessarily be so shy or timid with expression with an expression of their of their you know Muslim identity in public they can say that hey like I'm fasting and maybe before you know the election of the mayor or before his very you know public you know projection of his religious tradition maybe that maybe because of anti Muslim rhetoric people would not have been comfortable to talk about that publicly so I think in in one way there is there's this obviously incredible unique you know positive I guess self-relining that has taken place in the midst of all of the you know anti Muslim rhetoric and Islamophobia because I think on the opposite side you know without you know unfortunately so many within the Muslim community are just used to feeling you know feelings of isolation and marginalization so where that's also picked up locally in the media you know with with with respect to political rhetoric that is targeting you know the mayor or even that which is transpiring across the world and how maybe that's also contributed toward you know various

10:27developments of of Islamophobia locally within our communities unfortunately it's something that our communities are just so used to so that you know there is there is this positive aspect but then there's kind of the sobering moment where it's like oh wow you know this is something that we we consistently have to experience even during this most sacred time of the year for us when we're meant to we're gathering together in community and spending time with others so you know it has it has its unique challenges as well let's take a phone call from Muhammad in a story who I think has a special blessing that's been bestowed upon him this Ramadan Muhammad you're on WNYC hello hello and good morning thank you for taking my call yeah it's interesting Ramadan my first Ramadan as a father we we were blessed with with our son Melik in the beginning of Ramadan but unfortunately didn't get to leave the hospital due to many complications and with my wife's health which we were really spent most of the month

11:34in the hospital thankfully thank god thankfully she's feeling better so she was mixed with happiness and and fear and anxiety but we also my heart goes out to those in Gaza who lost their health care system and in the genocide and can't find the hospital to go to we were surrounded 24 seven by doctors nurses a lot of infrastructure that carried us through this journey and I can't imagine how life would be like without any of that Muhammad thank you that's my reflection thank you for your call and congratulations on becoming a father it sounds like your wife is doing better now and I hope that that all goes well for you and your baby Melik and your wife and yourself thank you for calling us Ramadan the bar thank you and I acknowledge that

12:39not everybody accepts the word genocide for what's going on in Gaza but I think that's a reflection Dr. Jaffer of how so many people in the Muslim communities of the United States of the world you know must be juggling the emotions of the personal and the global here he is with about as personal a thing as you can have happened to you you know at that level of profundity becoming a father for the first time and yet there's the whole rest of the world too yeah absolutely i mean anything that's such a real real real take you know um you know with all of the time that we get a chance to spend with our family and with our community during these days I you know just spending time with so many people as I do during the course of this month of Ramadan I I there was not a day that passed where people were not reflective of that which is taking place across the world you know we we spend a lot of our evenings in prayers in an act

13:39in you know in various acts of religious ritual uh in supplication and so on and so forth and so much of uh of uh of our community members reflections or no doubt you know around what is happening in Palestine in in in Iran in Lebanon um in the Sudan Congo you know across you know of Palestine in Pakistan and you know different parts of different parts of the world um and even and even the challenges that that that individuals and Muslim communities and people are dealing with here locally in this country with uh with with with ice raids with um you know other feelings of you know isolation marginalization you know racism homelessness all of the various real obstacles that so many within our communities have to face you know the month of Ramadan is an opportunity for us to center those things and hopefully you know work to to to give back where we can through charitable efforts or through advocacy mechanisms um it's uh it's really the important time for us to think beyond ourselves Pat and Hillsborough and New Jersey around WNYC hi Pat

14:45hi um I just wanted to comment two things two small things one I'm really happy that there's a mayor in New York City that is representing positive Muslim values and kind of setting a standard for that and number two um is how surprising it is that I'm an Indian Muslim and in the Indian community here and overseas as well there's a lot of racism against Merimondani um and it's like some people I know take it as a joke that he's the mayor is that you know he doesn't really represent Muslim values or whatever he's too liberal or he's too bad and then other people just blatantly are racist towards the fact that he's Muslim at all and it just hurts that that comes from within the community so I want to say thank you Pat I appreciate your call yeah and we have another text from a listener who says as a Muslim American oh that's that's a different one

15:50uh this one the relevant one says my mother's family are from India very hard to be a Muslim there and then uh the listener had something that's on uh their iftar plates um says they eat keer a dessert with condensed milk raisins nuts and vermicelli also pavao a very special dish much like biryani and you know that text there's another one right uh so the text backing up with the caller said about how it's difficult to be an Indian Muslim and we know of course in the context of India itself um there's so much tension between the Hindu and the Muslim communities there the Hindu majority and the Muslim minority uh but here almost like the father who called about the blessing of the birth of his son and what's going on in Gaza here here a listener says it's very

16:50hard to be a Muslim in India and then goes right on to have to what they have for dessert so uh I don't know again you know maybe representative of the breath of emotion at this time absolutely yeah I mean it's it's a it's such a unique time and even as we approach the the the eats celebration and the eat holiday tomorrow that is that is certainly the topic of conversation around every family's you know breakfast lunch dinner table uh about how to balance I've had so many experiences talking to families where they have been you know struggling to navigate how they're going to celebrate this here and really how they've been celebrating the last couple of years and whether or not they should make it super festive you know for the sake of their children you know because it's really really important time or should they hold back some of that you know in light of in light of everything happening in the world it's uh it's a it's a tough thing to navigate no doubt. Amen on Staten Island you're on WNYC. Amen thank you for calling in

17:53Ramadan Kareem. Thank you for taking my call. Yeah I um might might take on uh Ramadan this year is how how the West for decades have always procured Muslims in a negative way than all of a sudden we fall into the brink of World War III now with their aggression coming in from what's old called Jewish state and from Trump which is surrounded by hardcore evangelist Christians who attack Iran as a sovereign nation and I'm trying to take this all in how we're going to proceed and continue during this holy month of Ramadan now we're ending it and how we're supposed to celebrate it's supposed to be a time of celebration and then you take all this in so all we have is our faith in you know in God and hopefully that he's the one

18:56that maybe can solve all this because humanity is at a loss right now that's that's how I take it amen we are at a loss right now because we're we're we're we're not even done with the Gaza and it's genocide going on and now we enter another genocide. Amen thank you for your call um and Dr. Jafar again I'll acknowledge you know different people have their different language for what's going on and their different politics um but you hear how amen is sort of at his which end about how humanity as opposed to God intervening can solve all of this yeah yeah you know I think one of the one of the efforts that I try to employ you know in my my faith leadership role is really is really trying to center you know hope um in the midst of so much trials and tribulation and distress that so many so many are going through um and we want to acknowledge

20:01that there is like pain that people are feeling and there's no doubt and that's and that's real and that's understandable um but as a as a community we have certain opportunities and privileges I don't have to think about what I'm going to eat tonight for a far because I have food um you know to break my fast with um and at the same time I'm in a state of recognition that that's a privilege because so many people don't have food on the table so to be appreciative and to be in a state of gratitude um for for for for these blessings that we do have in front of us um and even the ability for us to speak out the ability to be expressive the ability to share like one's politics and one's reflections all of these things are are are are are meaningful and they have to be acknowledged and recognized um but in terms of cultivating a community that's hopeful about the future we have opportunities we have opportunities through our voting mechanisms we have opportunities through our voices we have opportunities through you know our our wealth and other sorts of privileges that were afforded um and I don't think we should sort of um you know be in a state of total despair

21:05when when when so much when so much you know around the world is is certainly contributing to that feeling so I understand it for sure but I think also we have a sense of responsibility more so today than than we did um you know prior prior to all this you know unfortunate violence that is that is taking place across the world one more Omar and Westchester you're on WNYC hi Omar thank you for calling that thank you for having me I really appreciate this conversation I even a lot of it to everybody uh yeah I just wanted to say I had uh taken the opportunity that I'm allowing to go to as many different mosques around the New York area as possible I know that's a privilege uh and it was just really beautiful to witness the diversity of the Muslim experience throughout uh the five burrows like first hand uh going to a majority Yemeni mosque in the Bronx going to a majority guy needs mosque uh a story uh and you know even one day I found myself in Connecticut and I popped into a building that used to be a church and was converted into a mosque it still had the stained glass and the wooden rafters and uh I just you know I feel like on on on the on the topic of this conversation about recognizing how we have to remain hopeful I think

22:10New York as a city as a whole uh gives me hope especially in this moment with Mayor Mandani and just thinking about you know ways out of this really dark chapter in American history uh there's a lot of light that we can start see you know peeking through the cracks and I hope uh the settlement on showed people that. Omar thank you very much uh so that's interesting that that tour that he took himself on to mosques in diverse Muslim communities and as we run out of time I mean uh I'll notice I did in the intro that you're the first full time she a Muslim chap when appointed at any American university from what I've read so do you want to say anything about how Ramadan observance differs or not within the Shia tradition you know people who are following the war may know that one of the political dynamics in the Middle East is the divide between Iran which is largely Shia and countries like Saudi Arabia largely Sunni but uh how does it play for you?

23:14Yeah I mean essentially you know ritualistically the the differences are fairly minor particularly with the month of Ramadan there are you know very very small differences and you know across the board ritualistically prayers differ slightly the the the conclusion and the timing when the faster in the month of Ramadan differs very slightly maybe in the Shia community we break our fast about 15 or 20 minutes later in in the big picture an observer who's looking from the outside probably couldn't tell the differences uh but nonetheless I would say that where this year in specific it's become a little bit more you know heavy for the Shia communities that you know like you mentioned and and I would say just a just a bracket or just to offer a quick parenthesis that a lot of the rhetoric around you know Shia and Sunni dynamics in the Middle East and Saudi Arabian Iran and and all of this is really like you know a manifestation of geopolitical realities more so than than sectarian or religious ones but that being said you know the majority of of Iran you know are are Shia Muslims as well as those within the the southern part of Lebanon so right now the

24:19the number of people in my community and congregation you know who are being impacted you know with their families being displaced or so on or or the inability for them to be in touch with their families during the course of these you know nights and days has been really really hard there's not been there's not been a day in the last three weeks where I'm not spoken to someone who is you know in tears you know saying that they haven't spoken to their family member or someone have been killed so there is this heightened level of you know of grief and sadness I think that's been impacting so many within our community but you know again we we we we we have to be hopeful and we and we have to continue to to do the best that we can with respect to coping and and at the same time you know utilizing our privileges to the best that we can and and hopefully we see an end to to to all this all this bloodshed unfortunately yeah does it ever complicate your role as a chaplain for you know all the people and all the the Muslims in particular that that there are

25:24enough bad guys to identify in this war depending on your experience right including the the government of Iran which killed by most accounts tens of thousands of protesters in the streets most of whom would have been Muslim in in Iran such an Iranian diaspora community in this country and maybe summit NYU you know in a state of horror what that government has done in addition to whatever they may feel about the US or Israel how do you process that and then we're out of time yeah I mean it's it's certainly a challenging thing you know at the end of the day I want I want to help people you know get past their grief and and have them centered like religiously and spiritually most importantly that's that's that's what I get paid to do and I try I try to you know and again I've seen this so often you know with so many members of the community they can be you know anti a particular you know political elite but at the same time they're also like anti war you know

26:26or they or they really don't want it to to kind of go down this way so it's been it's been no doubt you know challenging with so many you know political opinions and so much political rhetoric you know in the midst of you know people navigating grief again my job is to hopefully just kind of you know recenter people back within within within the with in the framework of faith without without without getting without getting into that sort of discourse because I don't find it to be particularly beneficial at least within my role all right 20 seconds what's on your eat plate tonight oh um I I have no idea yet to be honest with you I've been so busy I've been so busy taking care of you know issues pertaining you know with with you know in the community so I'll just summarize whatever my wife gives me I'm okay with it Dr. Shakefayah's Jaffa Executive Director of the Islamic Center and Chaplin at NYU thank you so much for some time today and Ramadan Korean to you thank you Brian to show you WNYC Studios is supported by

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