Should Christians share in Muslim Iftar meals?
by Ian Paul, Psephizo:
It might seem odd that the question of whether Christians should join in iftar meals with their Muslim neighbours is a pressing one for the Church in the UK. But following the hosting of a Grand Iftar, to mark the end of the Muslim season of Ramadan, at Southwark Cathedral, reaction appears to have been strongly divided, and it is clearly a contentious issue.
The word ‘iftar’ simply means ‘meal’ or ‘feast’, and has with it implications of a social meal, eaten together in the community. At that level the issue is relatively uncontentious. But the iftar is a particular meal, ending the fasting during the daytime all through Ramadan—and Christians who live in Muslim countries by and large have no problem with joining in with this social occasion, as it is just part of the local culture. (They also point out that, paradoxically, Muslims probably eat more during Ramadan than at other times, because of the large breakfast taken in the morning, and the iftar feast at the end of the day!)
But in the UK, the Ramadan fast has a different status. Fasting is one of the five pillars of Islam (along with confession of faith, ‘There is no god but Allah, and Muhammed is his prophet’, prayer, giving alms, and pilgrimage to Mecca), and the iftar meal usually happens just before evening prayers. In a non-Muslim culture, the iftar will have an important function in identifying and encourage cohesion for the Muslim community. But it is isn’t possible (as some have argued) to simply say that the iftar is a religious meal. Islam does not separate the ‘religious’ from the ‘social’, and has a totalising world view, making exclusive claims over the whole of life. (Mainstream Christianity had a similar approach prior to the modern era; the division of life into the sacred and secular is primarily an Enlightenment construction.) So the status of the iftar meal is complex, particularly in Western cultures where Muslims are a minority group. One of the issue for Southwark Cathedral was building trust and cohesion between Muslim and non-Muslim communities a year on from the attack on London Bridge by three Muslim men.
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