New York City

Muslims in politics celebrate the end of Ramadan

Balancing professional life during Ramadan can be both “exhausting and exhilarating.”

Faiza Ali, co-director of the Community Outreach Unit of the Community Engagement Division at the New York City Council.

Faiza Ali, co-director of the Community Outreach Unit of the Community Engagement Division at the New York City Council. Submitted photo

Eid al-Fitr, a Muslim holiday celebrating the end of Ramadan, will begin tonight after sundown. Ramadan, the ninth month in the Muslim calendar, is observed by fasting during the day. The fast isn’t just deprivation of food from sunrise to sunset – Muslims also refrain from drinking any liquid, including water, during that time. Daily meals eaten before dawn are known as suhoor, and meals to break the fast after sunset are called iftar.

“I think a lot of people mistakenly think of it as a thing that you suffer through,” said Zohran Mamdani, the field director for Ross Barkan’s campaign against Republican state Sen. Marty Golden. “It’s actually a beautiful time.”

Aliya Latif, manager of Immigrants Affairs and Muslim and South Asian Relations for New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, also said that she found meaning in observing Ramadan while carrying out her duties at work, calling the month “exhausting and exhilarating.”

“My job is service to both my city and my community. This is faith in action for me,” Latif said. “So I think that the challenge is an opportunity to push ourselves harder, to give back in ways that we didn’t think we could have.”

Mamdani said it could be challenging to manage field duties while fasting, especially during the last few hours before iftar, joking that he had “Ramadan brain” where it was difficult to concentrate. However, he also discussed how breaking the fast sometimes turned into a campaign event, as he has celebrated iftar with community members, especially since Bay Ridge has a large Muslim population.

“It's nice to both break my fast with community members and have that moment of joy, and then also at the same time it's a chance for Ross and other people on the campaign to interact with other people they might not otherwise get the chance to meet,” Mamdani said.

For another Muslim working in politics, fasting isn’t actually the biggest challenge. “I am not proud about this, but it’s pretty common for me to sometimes forget to eat lunch so refraining from food and drink during Ramadan is not the most challenging aspect of fasting while at work,” said Faiza Ali, co-director of the Community Outreach Unit of the Community Engagement Division at the New York City Council. “If you’re up early for the pre-dawn meal and participating in late night prayer, there isn’t much time for sleep so that starts to play out a little mid-afternoon.” Ali said she wakes up at around 3:15 every morning for suhoor. Like Mamdani, she often celebrates iftar with members of her community.

New York, particularly in New York City, has a relatively high Muslim population compared to other states. According to the Pew Research Center, 2 percent of adults in New York state identify as Muslim.

New York City Councilman I. Daneek Miller, the only Muslim elected official in New York City or in the state Legislature, is not fasting Ramadan this year, as he is recovering from an injury. However, he said he is still observing the holiday, by reading the Quran and Muslim scholars.

“It has afforded me this opportunity to really delve down spiritually,” Miller said about enforced rest due to neck surgery. In other years, he has schlepped around his district and City Hall for Council duties while still maintaining the fast.

“It’s by far the busiest month, because nothing else changes, and you’re fasting. You have very, very limited energy,” Miller said. But, he said, the difficulty was eased his office, other Council members and his community were supportive during Ramadan.

Like Miller, Ali said that she found Ramadan to be an extremely spiritual experience.

“Fasting during the month of Ramadan allows you to reflect on your relationship to God and responsibility to community,” she said.

Latif said that she will be spending as much time as possible with her family for Eid al-Fitr. Mamdani will be celebrating the holiday with the campaign, attending morning prayers near Bay Parkway in Brooklyn, which is attended by thousands of people.

This is the first time that Mamdani is observing Ramadan fully in many years. “I've been surprised to find that I wanted to keep going. I initially thought that I would just count the days down,” he said. “I'm hardly looking forward to a time without Ramadan.”

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.