A different kind of Ramadan: Hong Kong Muslims observe fasting month at home, as pandemic measures halt mosque gatherings
- Festive season goes quiet as mosques cancel communal meals, nighttime prayer sessions
- Restrictions stay as Hong Kong mosques reopen partially, with limits on number who enter
It is about 7pm when Muslim community leader Raheel Ahmed, 57, gathers with his wife, two sons and daughter for a home-made meal of dates, rice and spicy curried chicken, salad, fresh fruit and juice.
For this Hong Kong family of Pakistani origin, it is their first meal after fasting for more than 12 hours, as this is the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
The world’s 1.8 billion Muslims mark the month by abstaining from food or drink from dawn to sunset, and gathering as a community in mosques to break fast and pray. It is also a time to think about the less fortunate, and perform acts of charity.
“I have never celebrated Ramadan like this. It is like living in a cage,” Ahmed says, at his home in Tuen Mun.
The chairman of the United Muslim Association of Hong Kong, a non-profit organisation with about 400 members of diverse nationalities, Ahmed says this is the first time in his life that he is spending the holy month praying, fasting, and breaking fast at home, instead of being in the thick of the bustle at a mosque, organising activities and gathering in fellowship with numerous other believers for the important evening meal and night prayers.
“I feel guilty and helpless all the time, not being able to do anything,” he says.
The closure of the city’s six mosques since late March, and social-distancing rules intended to curb the spread of Covid-19 mean that Hong Kong’s Muslims who number about 300,000 – including 150,000 Indonesians, 50,000 Chinese, 30,000 Pakistanis, and others from elsewhere – have to observe Ramadan on their own, in their homes.