Concerned about the portrayal of Muslims in India, author Nazia Erum hosted a multi-faith dinner in New Delhi to lay a few misconceptions to rest

At a dinner in a Delhi home on Sunday, guests around the table were asked to write down one stereotype that they – Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Hindus – had about one another. The purpose? Breaking prejudices while breaking bread together.

The interfaith meal was prompted by the hosts’ desire to address preconceptions about Muslims, whom they feel have been targeted under Narendra Modi’s government.

Muslims spit in their food before eating. Muslims cut off the head of goat and eat it raw. Muslim homes are dirty. Muslims don’t bathe. Muslims are illiterate. These were some of the guest comments read out by the host, Nazia Erum, a Muslim author.



“We had a good discussion – both serious and hilarious – about these stereotypes,” says Erum. “And smashing the stereotype further was that a Muslim female pilot, biker, lawyer, doctor, and historian were present. So in one go, they saw educated and articulate Muslim women, saw the inside of a Muslim house and saw that it wasn’t dirty.”

The dinner was an iftar, the evening meal eaten to break the daily fast observed by practising Muslims during Ramadan, which ends on Thursday. It is broken first with dates, fruit, vegetable fritters, and sherbet. Later, more substantial dishes are served in the form of meat curries and kebabs.

Erum says she knew sharing a meal could be a way to bring people together, but wanted to go beyond eating to make a dent in the walls of mistrust. She was aware of research that revealed only 33% of Hindus counted a Muslim as a close friend. When she used a Facebook post to invite people who had never been to an iftar, she received a positive response.

“I thought we should use the occasion to drag out some misconceptions and deal with them. Some women friends offered to cook. One volunteered her house. Around 80 people came. We had a great discussion – hard sometimes, because how does one prove that Muslims don’t spit in their food? But it was useful to open the lid on these prejudices,” she says. Friends of hers organised similar iftars in six other cities.

The obvious difficulty of going without food or water from dawn to dusk in temperatures of 42 degrees means that, when families and friends finally sit down to eat, the atmosphere is festive.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Film-makers Saba Dewan and Rahul Roy, who organised a multi-faith iftar in Gurgaon. Photograph: Amrit Dhillon

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/only-33-of-hindus-count-a-muslim-as-a-close-friend-survey/articleshow/58018664.cmsIn Gurgaon, just outside the Indian capital, Saba Dewan and her husband Rahul Roy, both film-makers, held a similar meal for 400 people from different backgrounds and faiths. The couple had been upset at Hindu mobs disrupting Muslims performing namaz, the prayers observed by Muslims five times a day, on the roadside and in public parks in the area in April.

They formed a citizens’ forum for unity group that organised the iftar. “Because of the climate that’s been growing in the country as a result of the politics of hatred, we believe citizens have to ‘self-organise’ to fight whatever politicians are doing to harm society and to work for harmony,” says Dewan.

Car factory worker Mohammad Yamin, 32, attended the iftar. “We work in the same offices and factories, we eat the same food, we wear the same clothes. But when we are outside, we allow people to get us worked up and to fight. Why can’t we be the same outside as we are inside?” he asked.

The guest of honour was Yashpal Saxena, a Hindu whose only son, Ankit, 23, was murdered in the capital in February by the family of his Muslim girlfriend. After his son’s death, Saxena won admiration for his humanity. He said it should not be used to turn Hindus against Muslims. Last week, he hosted his own iftar for his Muslim neighbours.

“When he walked in and 400 people rose as one from their seats to honour him – with Muslims leading the way – he was so overcome with emotion, he couldn’t read out the speech he had prepared. All he could say was: ‘Don’t stop doing this,’” said Roy.