Far from the massive celebrations of the sacred month of Ramadan in Islamic countries, Muslims in the Catholic country of Panama are celebrating the festival intimately inside mosques and their homes. This is the second Friday, a sacred day for Muslims, since the beginning of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, and in the Jama Mosque, next to the capital's waterfront, more than two hundred faithful have gathered. "Thank God, we receive a visit from approximately 250 Muslims from different backgrounds, both Muslims from India, Arab countries, and local Muslims from Panama," Sajjad Ravat, assistant at this mosque and the Panama Islamic Center, told EFE. In this "very blessed, very special month," as Ravat recalls, which began in Panama on February 19, Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset, which is "a month of spiritual training," in which fasting provides "discipline." "Keeping God in mind at all times, we abstain from eating and drinking, in the same way, this will help us to abstain from what God has forbidden and thus always fulfill God's commandments," says Ravat, a member of a Muslim minority of about 10,000 faithful in the Central American country. Some believers report that there is no religious tension or discrimination in Panama. Outside of there, in the rest of the Panamanian capital, nothing suggests that it is Ramadan; the call of the muezzin is not heard, and the celebration takes place in a more reserved manner, awaiting the end of the sacred month, when the faithful will go to the homes of relatives and friends to share gifts and food.
