Last Thursday night I had the honor of attending an Eid al-Fitr celebration hosted by Global Deaf Muslim and the Deaf Muslim Student Association (DMSA) at Gallaudet University.  Just in case you are not familiar with the Eid al-Fitr holiday, this is the three day celebration that occurs at the end of Ramadan, a month of fasting during daylight hours.

Although I spent part of my childhood in an Arab-American community where Arabic was spoken and cultural norms from the old country were observed (including the importance of education), I was not really familiar with Islam. Sure, I knew about the Eids and Ramadan and the five pillars of Islam, but for the most part it was academic, not practical, knowledge.   

Why didn’t I know more?  After all, wasn’t my family part Arab-American?

Well, contrary to what many Americans believe, the descriptive terms Arab and Muslim are not synonymous. Not all Muslims are Arab. And not all Arabs are Muslim. There are Christian Arabs and Jewish Arabs. In fact, many of the early immigrants to the USA from Lebanon and Syria (at that time under the Ottoman Empire) were Christian Arabs. And there are Muslims of almost every nationality - in fact, one of my closest friends while I was in graduate school was a Muslim of German-Irish descent who hailed from Iowa.  But I digress…

After entering Ole Jim and climbing the steps to the gathering space on the second floor, I was greeted by two lovely young women who were handing out programs for the evening. Both deaf Muslims and Gallaudet University students, one from Somalia and the other from the DC metro area.   

Ole Jim was filled with deaf Muslims (some were students and staff from Gallaudet and others happened to live nearby), hearing Muslims (some of whom were members of the media) and non-Muslims (deaf and hearing), mostly from Gallaudet University, who were curious and/or wanted to offer their support to these members of the deaf community.

Light shining through the windows of Ole Jim indicated the position of the sun – there would be no food or drink served until the sun had set and darkness set in.  The mistress of ceremonies, a member of DMSA, did a fabulous job of introducing the president of the DMSA and the president of Global Deaf Muslim, who each said a few words about their respective organizations and welcomed the crowd who had gathered for this celebration.

Soon afterwards, Muslim chaplain at Georgetown University and featured speaker of the evening Imam Yahya Hendi appeared. At first I did not even know that the imam had arrived, since he was clothed in western attire, which I was not expecting. During his introduction, his broad smile transcended the language barrier – although he knows Arabic and English, he does not know ASL. He greeted the crowd warmly, quickly putting them at ease with a joke about DC traffic that made everyone laugh, and then smoothly proceeded into opening prayer.

Having never attended Islamic services at a mosque (or anywhere else), I did not know what to expect.  So I reverted back to what I call my “hard of hearing mode”, depending on my powers of observation to do the right thing by watching and following and listening (i.e. cranking up my hearing aid volume as high as possible).  Yet unlike my experiences in other places of worship, where much depends on knowing when to stand and sit, calisthenics were not a critical part of the opening prayer before the imam’s talk. 

Imam Hendi spoke about many things, but the primary message I came aware with was the desire for peace – in many forms.

He mentioned the challenges of Ramadan, where one’s bodily desires of hunger and thirst during the days of fasting are overruled by one’s mind and faith, and the skill of self-discipline that one practices during Ramadan.

He also spoke of compassion, calling upon people to exercise compassion for one another, and he also spoke of social justice, economic equity, and community.

In addition, he raised a subject very dear to my heart, the duty of us to consider our impact on the planet, which he referred to as a “fundamentalist environmentalist” position. In this case, fundamental did not refer to a particular way of practicing religion, but the foundational importance of human dependence on the planet earth, and our duty to care for it. As someone who teaches environmental ethics, I was especially glad to see the imam express this message and to watch the crowd’s positive response to his words about this issue.

As the Imam wrapped up his remarks, the sunlight illuminating the stained glass windows of Ole Jim became dimmer and dimmer. Once he finished speaking, it was time to break the fast!

Buffet tables were laden with food and beverages, and the mood in the room quickly shifted from somber reflection to festive. 

Women and children were asked to line up first at the buffet. Yet, I hung back, hesitating to line up, mainly because I was not fasting and I knew that the Muslims in the room who had been fasting all day were hungrier than I. After several men kindly gestured for me to take my place in line, including one who appeared to be of Arab heritage, I did so, figuring that to dismiss their gracious hospitality would be disrespectful.  (Also, having grown up with a strong sense of Arab hospitality – I knew better than to decline this last offer!)

The food was a delicious mix of mostly Middle Eastern and American dishes – it brought me right back to the holiday buffet tables of my childhood, right down to the baklawa. People congregated at tables, sharing introductions and stories – it was a lovely gathering.

During dessert, people listened to Imam Hendi respond to questions that attendees had jotted down on index cards during dinner. 

One of the questions dealt with ways to stop extremism – the Imam’s response was so compelling that I have been thinking of it for days.

He started with a nonverbal response – fanning his face with his hands as to indicate what a hot question this was, matching his facial expression to his gestures. At this point, I realized that he was trying to connect directly with the deaf members of the audience – since he had waited until the interpreters had finished interpreting the question before he began to gesture. Only after he had established a (non-verbal) exchange with the audience, did he begin to speak. 

Now, I have watched hundreds of hours of hearing speakers having their English words interpreted into ASL. I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen a (non-signing) hearing speaker - one with no experience with the deaf community - communicate directly to deaf audience members.  I was impressed.       

And then he began to speak his response, the contents of which impressed me still more.

Imam Hendi began by boldly stating that extremism in any form was dangerous – whether religious extremism or political extremism, whether Jewish extremism or Christian extremism or Islamic extremism.  He spoke of the incompatibility of reconciling the notion of a God of mercy and love with the rigidity of extremism, and concluded by remarking that “forgiveness does not work well with extremism.”  It was a powerful response to a challenging question – and I just wish that I had been able to capture more of it in my notes. I did later find this link (written earlier this year), which provides more detail about his position.

As the evening came to a close, the Imam began the call to prayer, first chanting the words in Arabic, and then repeating the English translation for the interpreters, who then translated into ASL. He remarked that this was the first time he had ever done the call to prayer in English, though one would never know it by the ease in which he moved between chanting in Arabic and speaking (not chanting) the English translation.

Shortly after the call to prayer, the Muslims in the room gathered for closing prayers led by the imam, kneeling on the cloth spread on the floor in lieu of prayer rugs, and prostrating in the direction of Mecca.   Others in the room watched in respectful silence.

I’d like to end my post by thanking the many people who made the Eid al-Fitr event such a success and especially for extending such a warm welcome to all who attended, including non-Muslims.  I think all of us came away with a better understanding of the Islamic religion and of the needs of the deaf Muslim community, at Gallaudet and beyond.

Disclaimer: Although Teresa Blankmeyer Burke has many institutional and other affiliations, the contents of this blog represent Teresa’s personal views only, and are not associated with any of her professional affiliations.