WASHINGTON, 6 December 2002 — Things in Washington are often complicated, and so is this year’s Eid celebration, with half the Washington area celebrating it yesterday, with the other half today. But all Muslims in the DC-area, however, plan to celebrate together today at the Washington Convention Center. “We are staying home and taking it easy today,” said Abdulwahab Alkebsi, in Potomac, Maryland, who celebrated Eid yesterday. “We’re relaxing at home because we’re stuck in the snow.” Seven snowy inches covered the nation’s capital this morning.

“How can we explain the discrepancy? There are two schools of thought, one is that you go with the local community, and the other is that you go with decisions called in the East,” said Ismail Kenessy, 27, accountant in Washington, D.C. “The main point is that everyone is celebrating together tomorrow (Friday).”

Kenessy said this has been a good Ramadan, “especially as sunset was early this year.” After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, he decided to become politically active, and helped a local politician in Montgomery County, where Kenessy lives, with his re-election bid.

Kenessy said he was touched because the politician called him today “to specifically wish me a happy Eid.

“The 9/11 backlash aspect in America is obviously here, but in general — just like when Muslims do violent acts – bad deeds ends up getting more press than the regular Muslims who are just going about their regular lives. I think the same is true with Americans, in the sense that a regular American wishing me a happy Eid won’t get any press as compared to something controversial. But it’s so nice.”

“The DC metropolitan area is more educated, and more culturally sensitive, so there’s no problem for a Muslim like me, as perhaps for a Muslim living in a rural area.”

Kenessy said he and his wife were involved in several outreach programs organized to bring Muslims, Jews and Christians together during Ramadan.

He hopes many American Muslims will continue this post-Sept 11 outreach, as he said it helps “dispel the notion that Muslims are secretive, or don’t want to interact with others, or don’t want people to know about them.”

After Sept. 11, Kenessy says a Jewish friend gave him some good advice: “One thing you should try to get American Muslims to do, is to learn what Jews learned a long time ago, that if you are in the ghetto — a close, sheltered community, and don’t interact with others — it hurts you in the long run. Because the less people know about you, the easier it is demonize you, and to think ill of you.” He said he has taken that advice to heart.

As for Eid, Kenessy will pray and celebrate at the DC Convention Center today, “which will be good for the kids” then his family will have dinner with his parents and his sisters.

Asked what he’s looking forward to eating, he laughed and said: “I’m looking forward to having a cup of coffee in the morning.”

Freda Shamma has lived in Cincinnati, Ohio, for the past 18 years. She said this Ramadan has been good. “I don’t think that 9/11 had anything to do with my Ramadan, it was a easy month to pass because of the winter, and the time for eating was close to the time when everybody else ate. I really didn’t find anything difficult or problematic.” Shamma said she and her husband spent many Ramadan evenings at their local mosque. “We have the ‘taraweh’ prayers. And in the 30 days that we have this month, the entire Qu’ran is recited. We have three people in our community who have memorized it completely, and so one of them is at our mosque, and the other two are at another mosque.

“When we came to Cincinnati, the Muslim community was very small, and we had an old house that we used. We soon outgrew that, and built a very beautiful mosque on the outskirts of town.”

Shamma said that because the former mosque was close to the university, they wanted to keep the convenient location. And, in time for Ramadan this year, they completed a new building on the property. “This is the first Ramadan we’ve used the new mosque. The money was completely funded by the community, even the books.”

“There are several opinions about when you should celebrate Eid,” said Shamma.  The main opinion is that you should celebrate when the community celebrates, which is what we are going to do, we are following the advice of ISNA [The Islamic Society of North America].”

Today morning, Shamma said her family look forward to the Eid prayer in the morning. “We are part of the community of both of the mosques, and will try to attend both prayers. After the prayer at each mosque, there are breakfast snacks.

“Then, as with a lot of people in this community, many will have an open house at their home, and we’ll go from home to home to visit friends.

Farhan Syed, 27, will be celebrating his Eid in Chicago, where he has lived the past five years. A network engineer for Accencure, formerly known as Anderson Consulting, he said he is also grateful to have job.

“It’s wonderful to observe Ramadan here. I came from an area where the Muslim population wasn’t that large, but here, you can find a group of Muslims on just about every corner.”

Farhan said he attends a downtown mosque in Chicago, which encouraged everyone who works downtown to come to the mosque, pray and eat together.

He said he would celebrate Eid today, “along with the rest of the Chicago community. Farhan said he would go to various houses to meet with family and friends. “Then, in the evening, there are some big family dinners, with all the extensive families. Or sometimes, friends get together in a public hall, and share a large feast together.”

Asked if the new Homeland Security measures put a shadow on Ramadan, Farhan said it hadn’t “dampened my spirits, but do have reservations.”

He said he was afraid that if someone at the mosque is critical of the US foreign policy, “and someone is listening, I would be a little apprehensive in the sense that I would feel that I could be unnecessarily scrutinized because I’m attending that sermon. I would feel that I would be guilty by association, because I don’t necessarily have the same view as someone giving the sermon.”

But otherwise, he said, Homeland Security has not infringed on his rights as an individual and as an American citizen. “But the Homeland Security Act is a huge issue within our community, and something that talked about often in the evenings at social gatherings, because we fear the ruling will treat us as second-class citizens,” said Farhan.