Portugal: President joins Lisbon Muslims at mosque in breaking Ramadan fast

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Portugal: President joins Lisbon Muslims at mosque in breaking Ramadan fast

4:45 CAT | 05 Jun 2018

Photo: SIC Notícias

Portugal’s president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, has joined Lisbon’s Muslim community at the capital’s Central Mosque to share their ‘iftar’ – the meal that the faithful take after sunset to break the day’s fast during the month of Ramadan.

At around 9pm on Monday, sitting shoeless in the prayer hall, by the side by the president of the Lisbon Islamic Community, Abdool Vakil, and the imam of the Lisbon Central Mosque, sheikh David Munir, the head of state partook of dates and water.

Around him dozens of Muslims observed this symbolic moment, mobile phones in their hands, with some attempting to take selfies of themselves with the president even during prayers.

“This is a moment of respect, solidarity, sharing, understanding,” Rebelo de Sousa was to say afterwards.

The head of state remained in the prayer hall for some 15 minutes afterwards and then left, slipping on his shoes, and crossing the mosque’s interior patio, always surrounded by people, and went down to the building’s dining area.

On the way, the president said that this was the first time that he had shared iftar, noting that the secretary-general of the United Nations, António Guterres, had himself fasted for a day during Ramadan this year to show his solidarity with Muslims.

Asked whether he himself had fasted on Monday, he said he had, adding: “it’s like everything in life, it’s not exactly difficult, it’s a choice, it’s an option. And, in this case, it’s solidarity, it’s sharing.”

Addressing the Muslim community in the dining area, Rebelo de Sousa said it was “an honour for me, as representative of all Portuguese, to be here with so many Portuguese, among the best we have, in what is a sharing without any kind of limitation, but with understanding, with fraternity and with affection.”

According to the president, “Portugal wants to really live … the spirit that is in the Constitution, which is really religious freedom and inter-religious living together”.

There are some 50,000 Muslims living in Portugal.

The month of Ramadan is a period of fasting from sunrise to sunset, during which the stress is on spirituality.

Source: Lusa