This week, team Rahman shares more on Ramadan and Eid and highlight how Muslims are dealing with difficult events at home and abroad during this holiday season. Follow along each Friday through May with this J-Corps Audio Journal.
Hafsa Rahman: Hi, everyone. This is Hafsa and Amina Rahman with our J -Corps Audio Journal for this week. It's the last 10 nights of Ramadan, which is a very important part of the Holy Month for us, where we spend a lot of time worshiping and getting ready for Eid, which is coming up.
Amina Rahman: It's a very special time. Muslims are spending their time in worship, especially in the nights. Kids are really excited to go to the mosque at night to pray. They end up spending a lot of time with their friends, playing soccer outside, or just socializing.
In Muslim countries, you'll see that there's a lot of nightlife around this time. When people gather as a family, there are lights everywhere and the stores are open late, the restaurants are open late 'cause that's the time when people can eat. After they pray, they will go out and enjoy, coffee together or tea together and sweets.
In Springfield we have some different traditions. Some people like to go to IHOP in the middle of the night to have their soho and celebrate that Eid is coming up. We're not actually celebrating the end of Ramadan. We're celebrating blessings that we've accumulated in Ramadan and the positive changes we've made in our lives.
It's actually a bittersweet time 'cause people are always sad that Ramadan is over. But they're really excited to celebrate as a family and see their friends and gather as community. Some of the things we do on Eid will be gather at the mosque early in the morning, we have prayers and sermons, then people will greet each other by hugging each other and they'll say, Eid Mubarek, which means blessed, eat and go see their families. You're not allowed to fast on ease. So definitely eating is a big part of celebrating. A lot of people will eat the foods that are special in their cultures. Our family likes to go out for brunch so that nobody has to cook and clean. So that's a fun way to celebrate for us.
People will exchange gifts and visit other family and friends. Also, part of EID is giving charity. So usually families who can afford to will give charity ahead of Eid for those people who may not be able to afford the things that they need to celebrate so that they will have the money to buy those things and have a great Eid with their family.
Hafsa Rahman: We are getting into the editing phase to create the mini episodes. We're working on cutting up the interviews and the discussions we've had with people to put into our storylines
We are finishing up a few final interviews. We're starting to get to learn more about how to edit and what pieces of information to use, because these series episodes are gonna be so short, we have to be really smart with the way we place information. It's really interesting and it's gonna be a bit of a push to finish by the deadline, but I think we're gonna be able to do it and it's gonna turn out really well.
Amina Rahman: This week in Decatur, Millikin University invited Linda Sarsour. She's one of the organizers of the Women's March, one of the largest marches, if not the largest that gathered at the Capitol.
Linda Sarsour: My name is Linda Sarsour. I'm a Palestinian American Muslim organizer from New York City, and I'm the executive director of Empower Change. We underestimate the power of storytelling, the power of connecting with people and being able to share my journey in activism and organizing as a woman, as a Palestinian, as a Muslim American, and also my work in solidarity with communities across the country in this particular political moment. It's really important because while many institutions may be shying away from diversity, equity, and inclusion, and shying away from even bringing Muslim organizers or Palestinians in particular, that Milliken invited me, knowing exactly who I am is just really humbling for me and I'm just very honored.
I hope to remind people that times are gonna be hard, but we're all we got and we're gonna continue to organize and protect our people.
...Times are gonna be hard, but we're all we got and we're gonna continue to organize and protect our people.Linda Sarsour
Amina Rahman: She reminded us something very important while we're celebrating Eid, a lot of Muslims are hurting right now because of what's happening around the world.
Linda Sarsour: We are living in a really difficult moment. Being Palestinian American in this moment is just a lot. If you have Palestinian American friends and neighbors and people that are in your community or fellow classmates at university, know that we're going through a lot of trauma.
The least thing we could do, but the thing that is so meaningful, is to look at someone and say, "I see you and I'm sorry about what's happening."Linda Sarsour
And on top of that, they're watching their people being massacred. The least thing we could do, but the thing that is so meaningful, is to look at someone and say, "I see you and I'm sorry about what's happening." Just the nice, "I see you," could be really helpful to somebody.
Hafsa Rahman: That's it for our J-Corps Audio Journal update this week. Make sure you stay tuned in to continue to see our process and for the final series.
Edited for length and clarity.
Press Forward Springfield is awarding its first project grants. NPR Illinois along with the Illinois Times and Capitol News Illinois are each receiving funding to report on different untold stories in our community. The three reporting projects will be posted in May.
Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln in collaboration with the Field Foundation and the Illinois Department of Human Services are leading this project as part of their Healing Illinois program.
NPR Illinois is using the grant to test its vision for community reporting and journalism training — the Journalism Corps or "J-Corps."
