Celebrating Eid

Sometime in your life, hope that you might see one starved man, the look on his face when the bread finally arrives. Hope that you might have baked it or bought or even kneaded it yourself. For that look on his face, for the meeting of your eyes across a piece of bread, you might be willing to loose a lot, or suffer a lot, or die a little, even.

- Daniel Berrigan

From ColorLines:

As Muslim Americans across the country celebrate the end of the holy month of Ramadan, known as Eid, one group in D.C. is working especially hard to share the love — and the food. American Third Pillar Charities, a fairly new non-profit that was founded this year by a group of D.C.-area Muslims to bring together people of all faiths, will team up with another local group, DC Central Kitchen and serve dozens of meals to people who’ve fallen on had times. It’s an effort that stretches across faith and income. While DC Central Kitchen is well-known locally for offering breakfast, outreach and counseling servies to people without homes in the area, tonight will mark its first Eid celebration.

“For Muslims, Eid represents the most important days of the year, which we spend celebrating and serving those less fortunate,” said Mohammed Maraga, co-founder of American Third Pillar Charities. “Especially considering the hostility toward Muslims in parts of this country — our country — it is important that Muslim Americans make time to demonstrate our shared values with fellow Americans.”