In Cuba, some 3,000 Muslims, including converts, students from Arab countries and other Muslim residents, are celebrating their holy month of Ramadan, marked by fasting and increased prayers.
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Although the majority of the population practices the Yoruba and Catholic religions, Islam is also practiced by followers who find on the Caribbean island a place where their customs and traditions are fully respected.
In Cuban practice, believers in Allah get up at four forty-five minutes to eat some light food that gives them energy for the rest of the day, and if its possible, drink something, before starting the day-time fast.
Once they are forbidden to eat, drink or have sexual relations, the Cuban faithful go about their daily lives; they go to school or work, perform household chores, albeit at a slightly slower pace. According to some believers, the first few days of fasting are often somewhat exhausting, so they slow down their pace of life a bit.
On the island, according to the testimonies of resident Muslims, both work and study spaces tend to show solidarity and understanding with those who celebrate this sacred Islamic holiday. In contrast to a less intense daytime life throughout the month, nighttime activities, such as meetings and the breaking of the fast in the mosques, take on greater importance.
After sunset, the Islamic community in Cuba, as in the rest of the world, performs the Magris prayer before breaking the fast. First, light meals are eaten, and then large dinners are prepared, especially in the mosque of Old Havana, which is home to the majority of the island's faithful.
For Muslims, Ramadan is not only a month of prayers and fasting, it is also a time of celebration and hope, days to share with their brothers in faith, to reinforce help to the elderly, widows, children and anyone in need, spiritually or materially.
"Ramadan is precisely a month and a period of time in which believers make an effort to take measures for themselves, to help those in need, to create spaces of support that cover as many people as possible," describes Jorge Elías Gil Vian, Academic Director of the Arab Union of Cuba and professor at the Higher Ecumenical Institute of Religious Sciences in Havana.