May 28, 2012
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Turkish-American Muslims use Ramadan to reach out, educate
Züleyha Özönder is volunteering time during Ramadan to discuss with her fellow Americans what Islam is really all about.
6 September 2010 / AP, MINNESOTA
Despite the smells of fried dough and roasted meat wafting from the Minnesota State Fair, Salim and Zuleyha Özönder were focused on the people who were leaving, not the food or festivities beckoning from across the street.
Each time a new wave of people exited, the young Minneapolis residents -- who hadn’t eaten all day -- tried to press into their hands a small, glossy card that read “Islam Explained” on one side. On the other, it had about 180 words of background on a religion whose adherents fear is being misunderstood by too many Americans as violent and depraved. “You just want people to take the card, spend a minute reading it and say, ‘Oh. They’re not terrorists’,” said 27-year-old Zuleyha. She and her husband, like other Muslims, were fasting during daylight hours for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
The Özönders handed out 400 cards during one two-hour shift this week across the street from one of the fair’s main entrances, and were taking their second shift on Wednesday. The chapter is handing out the cards throughout the fair’s run, which ends on Labor Day.
The couple said they volunteered out of a desire to “do something together” for their faith. Zuleyha moved to Minneapolis in July from New York’s Westchester County after she married Salim, 28, a graduate student in physics at the University of Minnesota the last two years; both are of Turkish descent.
Both said their exchanges with fairgoers were mostly pleasant.
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