The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
Speeches, charitable donations and, of course, food, were featured at the annual Interfaith Iftar held at the Masjid-e-Ali mosque on Cedar Grove Lane.
An Iftar meal is eaten at dusk by Muslims observing the holy month of Ramadan. Ramadan is the holiest month in the Islamic calendar, and is a time for prayer, fasting and doing charitable works. The mosque regularly invites community members from all faiths to participate in their Iftar.
Among the speakers were state Assemblyman Joe Danielsen, Mayor Phil Kramer, and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who is a Democratic candidate for governor.
Danielsen acknowledged the mosque and its members, saying that in is “in every corner of our town.”
“There’s almost not enough room for the loving here,” Danielsen said.
Kramer said that in thinking about what he was going to say, a number of words occurred to him to describe what the mosque means to him.
“Gratitude, humility, reflection, generosity, patience, loyalty, compassion, condition, blessing, faith, charity, liberation, harmony, peace, and last but not least, food,” he said. “So, as I started to write, I kept bumping up against one word, kept over and over again hitting that same word. And I’m gratified that that’s the word that I hit because every speaker before me has used that word. That word is community.”
“This mosque, this religion, to me, can be summed up in one word, community,” he said.
“Thank you for what all you’ve done for the community,” Kramer said. “You make us better.”
Baraka talked about forgiveness.
“Currently we are asking for forgiveness, and if you believe, to forgive other people, forgiveness for the division that we create, for the separation that we continue to perpetuate in this country, forgiveness for allowing people to move us, to lead us, to be in charge of us, perpetuating violence against us, perpetuating communities that don’t fellowship with one another,” he said.
“We have a lot to ask forgiveness for, we have a lot to ask others to forgive us for, to forgive others for,” he said. “Those who are not observing, just the principle of us being here collectively, asking for our forgiveness as well, because we live in a community, a state, and a country that has not figured out how to make community.”
Alex Kharazi, a Township Councilman and founding member of the mosque, presented $11,000 in donations from the Muslim community to the Franklin Food Bank and the community organizations Qidma and ICNA Relief USA.
Also speaking was Laurie R. Doran, director of the state Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness.
Also in attendance were Township Council members Ram Anbarasan, Charles Onyejiaka, Kimberly Francois, Carl Wright, and James Vassanella; Somerset County Surrogate Tina Jalloh; Board of Education member Lauri Merris; Middlesex First Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Kuberriet; Somerset County commissioner Deputy Director Melonie Marano; Somerset County Undersheriff Tim Pino; representatives from the Franklin Township Interfaith Council including Protim Adhikari, lead Pastor of Point Community Church; the JFK Democratic club; the Human Relations Commission; the Dr. Martin Luther King Foundation; the NJ Muslim Voice for progress and American Muslims for Democracy, and Newark City Council member Reverend Louise Scott-Rountree.
Here are a few scenes from the event:
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