Im femi oke a a welcome to the stream this ramadan muslims around the world are being asked to stay at home this ramadan of this bandana this one of the on this ramadan im staying at home to protect our doctors nurses to protect our n. H. S. The british our suspicion rose its not that i am praying for the world im praying for the well for the world but for a lot. From you can be a lifesaver protect our frontline staff our n. H. S. Protect our doctors and nurses and save lives save lives saved life save lives and you can do all of that for just a whole day have a story of why they are going to help save lives before i do if. To protect us and save lives theres a. Bar of ramadan mubarak. Ramadan at home a hash tag and also a campaign asking muslims who are observing ramadan to stay socially distant because of the krona virus pandemic but how is that going to work doesnt work you can tell us joe by jumping into each you chat we love to bring your experiences into todays show but let me introduce a guests remedying kareen everybody so good to have you here. In the beano welcome everybody. Thank you well it on the bar all my names were going to call him well im an elected member of the council. To be a democrat and i want often paul independent good to have you had our way to introduce yourself. And know everyone from about gary and my name as the way that guys these i am are porter at the Huffington Post based in new york city where i cover on a phobia of social justice issues and the like and on a national level. Great to have you and finally joseph welcome to the stream tell of what he. Thank you karim everyone im just a longboard im a professor of quranic studies at the college of islamic studies at home a bit of evil university in doha and one of the contributing editor is an authors for the study koran good to have you welcome everybody lets start with a sly did they say much preparation that goes into drama but the idea of observing it doing a lot down what is sad even like robina you stopped what is your preparations been like. Oh my parish particularly as a mom does the work has been very. Preparing the household and the law down making sure that our immune system a boost to good. Making sure that we eating healthy is well im lucky because i live in the house i have a garden as well but i also have to support people who have been cramped conditions while i was crowded who are finding it very difficult to homeschool so preparing constituents making sure theyve got access to support in terms of supporting their own families and also working with charities on the. Aid programs to reach mobile and elderly people who are very isolated and so for me what i found in preparing for me the most important aspect is that we shouldnt forget the time from about its not just thinking about office but also about the people and the flexions so in terms of the people making sure that those who might be learning the maybe feeling isolated we dont forget them as well. I mean im just looking at tweet that you shed a few days ago when you were talking about getting ready with your children your nephews and nieces preparing for ramadan must be close prayers streamlined and if the gathering is Going Digital we can find ways to be together that just if this idea of a digital ramadan what does that mean what if youve seen one week doing. Well for myself i dont quite honestly say one of the experiences that a lot of people who embraces a lot better in life have is they often dont feel as embraced by the community and and so funny there is actually me but somebody was writing that said that it was one person was like theres a born muslim its like oh my god ramadan without going to the mosques every day and out with i gather that the only for if it or the other guys were going to go no 1st time. This is a regular experience. Were going to come back to joseph hes going to is slightly challenging Internet Connection but we will come back to him does a tweet that joseph decide whether the dish and im going to share this with you as well and its about what you cool if tom which is the way that you break the fast at the end of youll find sting day and this tweet this is what joseph shed so what can we call if to him is if dont if you do move it will wait if you have the disease like you my wife was 3 nights back just just in time what is it not how do you even do if top by billy zoom way to jump in it. Yeah i think at least here in the us we see in this creation what weve got dear stars i think thats the terminology that are going for and its this concept of trying to write instead of breaking your fast at the end of a beautiful meola with so many of your family Members Around as i was at home where are the mosque where the dinner party that people are going to do it on line and so when you zoom zoom Google Hangouts and skype or work all day lets use that to come back and i think its a kind of jump on joe says when i was talking to one woman or or that i was doing not too long ago who had embraced islam later in my and she had have died on those communities to kind of help her feel that spirit of amazon and she words worried about the loneliness that she was thawing to have to go through this month and so one of the ways that shes going to combat it is to set up your car as if darwin every we want to call it every night with different ends and families and i think its a way to kind of feel a little bit of community during its am over is that reoccur. And i am going to say as a as as a somebody who shares an office with many wonderful muslims to observe ramadan obviously socially distant now of course one things i found every ramadan people do is that theyre sharing pictures of food that is salivating over that they cant eat quite yet but later so in that tradition im going to show robinas if a big if caught up with my family im drooling right now about 40 family members digitally the food in my house was very real as you can see in chile that it looks gorgeous and so. Let me talk about something that actually is quite challenging and i for that i want to bring in had he is a medical student hes in pakistan and in pakistan the most will be staying open and shot try to explain to us why that is what it is about pakistan culture where family so fiercely and to give him as he so fiercely cherished that people would paps risk their own health and go to mosque. This is. This is. Is. Because if im wondering that the headlines from pakistan are incredible considering that many of us are practicing social distance at least physical distance whatever thief that were in what do you make of mosques in pakistan staying open at this time. Well i dont want to single out any one country but i dont think that this is necessarily a responsible move at this time one of the things that many people have not really understood is what is the actual or not that is the transmit ability factor of virus and and thats been debated and people have said oh its. You know some kind of scheme to get people out of the mosques and im afraid that some of that type of attitude has played into these decisions and this is something where it should be left to the medical experts and the. Scholars they need to say that this is an area where we need to advocate to those who have better knowledge of how such situations should be handled. How much guidance is how much guidance of the. Muslims around the world about how you should observe this unique ramadan where you cant get together as you would normally do you cant have fellowship as you normally have it will kind insist that. Weve had the Muslim Council of britain also. Should be close governs should not happen and i think that is absolutely right the government has also been part of council. Across the Political Parties as well there is one aspect that we should also talk about which is guidance and the. National Health Service and people who work in hospitals who are keeping off so i had a question from one of the m. P. s that i support. With a Different Number of politicians in the democrats but what she also me and it was very well should i give. The nation about things who are working in hospital settings. Given direct information they can give guidance the ultimate decision has to be a Health Professional setting so that it doesnt impact on the patient protect themselves and it does pressure on the n. H. S. So there is. About sharing and sharing. I guess i want to share this tweet with you it comes from nigeria and use of talks about. Communities in nigeria they cant do. Digital like they cant jump and he talks about the options that are left to sponsor programs for local radio stations so if you dont have internet and the connection is almost as good as. If you cant connect in that way. How else can you connect. I think ive been seeing matt people who have been getting very creative and. Connecting in ways that are beyond the internet i talking to a few people who said that they wanted to go outside and reconnect with nature because this is something thats also emphasizing that they are talking about connecting with the immediate family members in your home right you dont necessarily have to go so far and wide and i think were seeing creativity in terms of how we practice saying the traditional elements of the faith and i think a lot of people are tapping into that now and joe said im sure you know better that mean terms of the practice of seclusion right and meditation are big practices dating back to the prophets and theres something that a celebrated amazon and so i think its probably Something Else that a lot of muslims are practicing this this month. Just if. Thoughts on that one yes this is actually a very important point thank you for bringing it up yeah the opportunity is when you talk about connecting the most important connection that you make with in ramadan is the connection with god and with the koran and all of the other connections that we made should be viewed as as secondary to that and at times we get distracted by the social dimensions of ramadan from focusing upon its ultimate purpose which is that connection with. God with the koran and through that a cleansing of ourselves and the prophets custom was in the last days the last 10 days of ramadan to go into isolation and and to withdraw from society and and law perhaps it will be something that more people will be inclined to do in these last in these last 10 days because thats where the true spirit of ramadan is is to be found and its even in the quran in when it talks about ramadan it doesnt say shazam its. Its ramadan in which the core and was made to descend and the purpose of fasting is almost opening yourself off so that you have a space for the word of god to be instilled within you and thats made that connection while youve cut off all of these connections from the rest of the world. Im just looking at something that we share with our audience our online audience and the asta if we had any essential because who are out say who are observing ramadan firefighter get a handle firefighter as a muslim firefighter and paramedic have adjusted not only by wayne p p personal protective equipment on every corner but also praying more at the fire station especially up to breaking mine. Now the 5th in london and in the u. K. This whole idea. Observing ramadan when it is so difficult and so challenging for Health Workers right now and stressful and then on top of zach to be in the holy month of ramadan can you give us an example of what they like. Where i live in the hospital. Just from. Some of the health of. My constituents and when you wear protective protective equipment because very hurt and it becomes very difficult hence the person who is in that situation must make the decision themselves as to what they can. They can fall. That if you break dont you must make sure that you keep up to date so. They do people that they have around them supporting them is fundamental but most important fundamental making sure that you will sell off making sure the people that you care for and making sure the environment many of them could be working in. That pressure in that unit. So they feel that. If that is the issue they are more than. This issue. I want to bring you in here because youve been working on a number of stories right you finding islamophobia. Online because it is the month of ramadan for instance this headline here one of your stories anti muslim public and is seeping into online to schools about the coronavirus can you give us an example. Absolutely i may think the important thing to note here is that unfortunately at our most. Global but its been prevalent for a very long time and so when the pandemic. Was a matter of taking advantage of people. Vulnerabilities of their fears of their very valid concerns and then using that to promote toxic disinter mation misinformation about the Muslim Community and it was a trend that ive seen and many places and different parts of the world but the 3 that are highlighted in that report was the u. K. In the us and in india and then in the u. K. In the u. S. We primarily saw the old footage of say last years that i want on of the ramadan beforehand and that being circulated on far right websites and by people who have a history of promoting anti muslim brother and saying look at these muslims who are not social distancing theyre still going to their mosques theyre still gathering etc and not only is that false because again were using old image here but theres a message that wants to abilify in demonize the muslims which is ironic of like robinas that because so many of them are on the frontlines are essential workers are out there riding the most care and were seeing that here in the u. S. As well. Weve had another challenging point in the u. S. Where the President Donald Trump repeated that tweet talking about a disparity between the churches and the mosques and wondering if authorities were going to crack down on on the mosques and people gathering in the mosque was which is again information because the mosque have been ones that its not like they were planning to open they were closed from the 1st local and state and federal discretion where gatherings are fans its been over a month and in india its probably the worst case of osama phobia weve seen like you said the mosques have chosen to stay open for madonna and before that you had a small missionary group who were still of the humans about going out and gathering and therefore a number of cases have spread because of this missionary group and the muslims face the consequences you have fruit seller you were banned you had a muslim man who died by suicide because he was vilified her being associated with this group and so the impact of this propaganda is quite real. This is so not about one thing yet just peace guys want to say i mean we also need to when we put this on the context of coronavirus that originate in china one of the things that the whole of the spread of coronavirus has done has caused everyone to look away from whats have happening to the weaker muslims and and that has been an absolute humanitarian crisis and the chinese have just stepped up their persecution of the we are muslims and its something that muslims need to take into consideration if theyre worried about being walked under muslims because these are people in so many parts of the world that have far worse than those of us who are able to participate in this conversation right here now and listen to it have. Im so glad you brought up the we can muslims because he chewed out audience that is the chanting about helping the poor she found she 10 dress says its hard for the poor to see if a catch gene this month with the lock down cuff use and social distance is distancing its its hard to say them genuinely this whole idea about how are you able to fulfill your charitable deeds doing ramadan if you cant go out and make meals full of people who are less fortunate than yourself. How were you able to do that. Well at the beginning that weve been involved with Different Community organizations and the most important aspect of this pandemic and from a bomb is that Many Charities most involved charities have already begun to make sure that they are creating infinitys to give out and distribute meals perishable goods as well to people particularly those who are very old the ticking of those will rebel and the people who are families who are often very isolated because they are in isolation due to clap when they have people who have contracted 19 among them to on. To give tribute to the people who are taking care not the funerals. Cmon ek thank you for being on each and with us says for those who dont have anything to eat ramadan teaches us to care remember the poor weak people wherever you are which reidy sic ways beautifully into Saeed Jaffrey and he is at Pakistan Police and he said this time this fairly unusual ramadan reminds us that we should be doing charitable deeds as muslims during this holy month of this. Number than under corn beingness allowing us the opportunity to do one of the ramadan by empathizing with the poor we can do. We can head the needy. And the impoverished communities by giving charity. Time of crisis and we can stay at home and save the life of the poor and. God would be very happy but. We are observing ramadan so im just thinking he had chose it about the purity perhaps of a very different kind of ramadan where youre not working out how many did it is can i go to you how many if does can i get you what are you going to night when you dont have the opportunity to meet up with your friends and your family how is this perhaps in hot saying your faith as a muslim. For me as a muslim i would say that one of the most important things is that really one of the main things that you also have in ramadan that a lot of people go to the mosque for is learning is knowledge and theres actually been. Proven or a ship of people starting podcasts and other things on you tube and other places to help deliver. Boyd its almost too much in fact sometimes theres so many things that i would do i could feel my way with them but this is something that i think might actually be a great opportunity for a lot of people and find ways to connect with other communities but i hope that they dont take place of what happens in the mosque and again that aspect of not being able to do charity in person is very difficult but again a lot of opportunities opened up such as launching good is doing a good job of addressing all of that and giving us opportunities to practice it and enjoy our law when we are able to go back and universe and people will be able to do these things more in direct giving in a way that is our cost of as muslims. Right away right at the very beginning of ramadan b