KPCC videographer Mae Ryan filmed this morning’s Los Angeles Convention Center observance of Eid ul-Fitr, the holiday marking the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. The month is observed with fasting from sunrise to dusk and is considered a time of spiritual reflection and renewal. Many of those interviewed were immigrants who spoke of things like political and religious freedom; a young man wondered what his relatives in Egypt were reflecting on during the month. “We came to this country because of the freedoms we lacked in our country,” one woman said.
In spite of what many have described as blatant anti-Muslim discrimination in the post-9/11 era, a new Pew Research Center survey that examined the attitudes of Muslims in the U.S. found “no indication of increased alienation or anger among Muslim Americans in response to concerns about home-grown Islamic terrorists, controversies about the building of mosques and other pressures that have been brought to bear on this high-profile minority group in recent years.”
