As Ramadan comes to a close, a special community focus in Leicester, UK

News Producer with Newsivity is one of many worldwide who has spent the last month fasting during the holy month of Ramadan. During the month, he decided to get out and about in the wonderfully diverse city of Leicester in the UK to question local community members from the equally diverse local Muslim communities to ask what Ramadan signifies for them personally. As the month of fasting comes to a close this week and weekend, muslims worldwide will all be celebrating with friends, family members and community members.

One thing that was clear from the filming, and something that is felt the world over and that is the fact that Islam is no different to other religions in what it promotes and advocates and its significance on the every day lives and existence of community members worldwide. The promotion of charity, good will to one and all others, positive reflection, faith in something higher much beyond ourselves and making the world a better place to live in for everyone.

When talking about his motivations to film this mini documentary Mo says:

“Such an increasing overt portrayal of Islam in the media and the daily news doesn’t really provide the reality of what the religion means to daily community members and I wanted to put something together that just asked a simple question focussed on the month of Ramadan. For muslims and non muslims alike, I hope it shows the goodness within the communities and also that like everyone else in cities and countries everywhere, daily community members just want to live in peace, be happy and do good for themselves and for others.”

Talking about what deep insight it provided for him personally, Mo says:

“Filming in the city of Leicester was beautiful. Everyone was so warm and welcoming, and interestingly everyone also spoke about how sad they were when they heard about their religion being portrayed in a negative manner in the daily news and the minority of people around the world who have misrepresented it. It was also interesting how diverse the muslim communities are in Leicester, with people from the likes of Kurdistan, Iraq, Pakistan, India and the UK.”

The end of the holy month of Ramadan now marks the holiday of Eid this week and the beginning of the next lunar month, This first day of the following month is declared after another crescent new moon has been sighted or the completion of the 30 days of fasting if no visual sighting is possible due to weather conditions. This first day is what is referred to as Eid.

To learn more about the worldwide celebrations this weekend follow the twitter hashtag and please do feel free to join in on the culinary feasts that will be going on in homes and outdoor settings all over the UK and around the world.

We wish everyone celebrating a very peaceful and blessed Eid Mubarak, and here’s to the rest of the year brining much more positive and goodness all round for everyone around the world. It’s also a great time to continue the focus on regions of the world where instability or hardships exist which may not provide a similarly equal time of celebration as in some parts of the world.

A lesson we certainly learnt from the filming in Leicester is that it is every day community members that come together and make things change for the positive. And each and every one of us can make a positive difference for ourselves and for others around us.

Here is the full version of the filming by .

And do tell us on or … What does Ramadan mean for you?

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Special mention to Mo Seedat and Sagheer Nasrulla