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Local City Leaders Invited To Islamic Prayer Celebration

FORT SMITH (KFSM) — The Fort Smith Islamic community held a celebration on Wednesday (July 6) at Ben Geren Park to commemorate the end of Ramadan.  City l...

FORT SMITH (KFSM) -- The Fort Smith Islamic community held a celebration on Wednesday (July 6) at Ben Geren Park to commemorate the end of Ramadan.  City leaders were invited to the celebration, which was wrapped up with a prayer and a feast.

Muslims observe Ramadan in the ninth month of the Islamic Calendar, from June 6 - July 5.

Ramadan is a month of daily fasting from sun up to sun down. Followers of the religion fast to commemorate the first revelation of the Quran to Muhammad according to their religion. Muslims refrain from food, liquids and smoking during Ramadan.

For the first time, city leaders in the River Valley were invited to watch the ceremony.

"Apparently it's the first time mayors have been invited to attend this particular occasion and it turned out to be a Muslim community to share with us their background and religion and how much the United States means to them. They are citizens of our community," said Fort Smith mayor Sandy Sanders.

Sanders, along with the Van Buren mayor and Barling mayor were in attendance.

Yusra Samman is a UAMS student who was at the commemoration. She spoke about what Ramadan means to her.

"This has allowed me to just take a step back and remember my spiritual side," Samman said. "The world goes on around us and we kind of neglect to thank God for everything we have. So this month has been an opportunity to step back and have that spiritual cleansing."

UAFS student Maraam Zonfuly said she was glad to see the city leaders attend the ceremony so she could share her thoughts on the Islamic religion with others.

"Everything you see in the news is basically the bad side of Islam, which is mostly in almost every religion. There's the bad people and the good people, and we're just trying to show people what Islam is really about -- which is peace," she said.

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