OKLAHOMA CITY – Gathering together to celebrate the holy day of Eid, this city’s Muslim community gathered at the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City’s mosque last Friday to observe this important day in their religion.
Congregants of various ages and ethnicities, many of them in brightly colored robes and matching hats, streamed into that house of worship as Imam Imad Enchassi began to speak.
The actual prayer room was soon filled to capacity, and some of the worshippers watched the Imam from a television screen that had been put in place in the hallway for that purpose. After the service was completed many of the attendees congregated in groups outside the structure near makeshift counters where soft drinks were being dispensed and greeted one another with kisses and the expression “Eid Mubarak.”
One intrepid group of fashionably-dressed teenaged girls sold candy to raise funds for the victims of Hurricane Harvey and one of them held up a poster that told of the purpose of their sales.
One of those sellers subsequently explained that they raised over $520 that will soon be making its way to Houston and that their Muslim faith required that they make efforts to assist those who are in need.
Their efforts were hampered by the amount of candy that was being distributed by other attendees without cost as well as the pallets that contained boxes of fresh donuts that were being given away.
Under a blue sky that featured a row of sunbeams. Fathers and sons in identical Pakistani suits were the subjects of selfies taken by friends and family members as were many other attendees. Africans in gold, red, and white robes gathered together and spoke cheerfully in a variety of African languages.
Many of the men were clad in conventional business suits with ties, and some of those present were wearing medical scrubs with their names emblazoned on them that indicated that they were physicians and other health care professionals in the employ of local hospitals and clinics.
As the crowd began to disperse, some of the people made their way to the nearby Zam Zam Mediterranean Restaurant and Hookah Bar, on MacArthur Boulevard in Warr Acres where little children rode on ponies under the watchful eyes of their parents.
A seemingly lifeless pile of plastic material that was outside of that establishment was transformed into a large bounce house that seemed to ascend into the heavens and was soon full of laughing young children. Many of the men there and some of the women began to smoke hookah pipes after they had eaten and hugged and kissed some of the young people who were present.
And the people of other faiths who were present were made to feel welcome and were asked to return for future events.