Sunset was approaching, which meant those who observe Ramadan would soon break fast. Meanwhile, a dozen volunteers who showed up to Steinway Street on a recent Wednesday were now readying themselves to hand out 150 free halal meals.
Local children and elders stopped to pick up boxes of rice and chicken or lamb or falafel in anticipation of Iftar, the fast-breaking meal that follows Maghrib, the fourth of five daily Islamic prayers. But there were newcomers speaking Wolof and French and Arabic among them, too.
As prayer time neared, asylum seekers who had only recently arrived from Muslim-majority countries in North and West Africa began to arrive in groups, many while en route to nearby mosques. Most of them said it was their first time observing the Islamic holy month away from friends and family — and that their bodies have not yet grown accustomed to doing so in New York City’s nipping cold.
“It’s the opposite of what we’re used to,” Khaled Mohammed Ali, 24, told THE CITY in Arabic through an interpreter from Malikah, the Astoria nonprofit that organized the break-fast meal along with Muslim charity group Islamic Relief and city Comptroller Brad Lander.
Unlike in the streets of his native Morocco, he said, storefronts here are only scantily decorated for Ramadan if at all. What he misses most, though, is sitting around a pot of hot tea with family, and breaking fast with them over lamb. “It doesn’t feel like Ramadan.”
Amino Salam, a 22-year-old also from Morocco, chimed in: “Here it feels like you’re just fasting.”
As newcomers from Africa are making up a growing share of migrants in New York City, Islamic faith groups like Malikah and houses of worship have become increasingly important resource centers. A number of mosques across the city, for example, have offered free meals and allowed asylum seekers to sleep in their basements, with some of those mosques going into debt to do so.
Brahim Maouloud, a 44-year-old from Mauritania, said he is particularly grateful for the kindness of strangers. He and Salam and Mohammed Ali have made it a habit to travel together from their migrant shelter on Hall Street in Brooklyn to this corner of Queens, he said, because the nearby Al-Iman Mosque offered a sense of care and belonging with food and language that felt somewhat familiar in an unfamiliar place.
“There’s a big Muslim community here that’s always helped me,” said Maouloud.
“I want the people of New York to know that if they see an asylum seeker that looks upset or sad, it’s not because we’re not friendly — we’re just going through a lot,” he added.
“We’re under a lot of pressure.”
American Dream
Faycal Tindjiri, 24, and Abdel Aziz, 28, were on their way to Al-Iman Mosque when they stopped at Malikah’s Iftar giveaway late last Monday afternoon.
The two had fled Chad, Aziz said, to get away from the latest civil war unfolding there. But Tindjiri said America has been difficult, too.
“No one helps you, no one’s guiding you,” Tindjiri said. “Everybody’s on their own.”
Going to the mosque during Ramadan has helped, Aziz said, both to fulfill his religious needs but also because it, too, offers Iftar meals that break the monotony of having white rice at the shelter every night.
Ashraf Chabab, 23, and Mbarek Lamine, 33, also said they had been breaking fast with the same food at the shelter night after night. But that Monday would be different, they said, as they had just stumbled upon the Iftar giveaway while walking along Steinway Street in search of jobs.
“At the end of the day fasting isn’t about food, it’s all about praising Allah,” Chabab said in Arabic, observing that Ramadan in the city has felt ordinary compared to his native Morocco, where he and Lamine had been friends.
“Alhamdulillah,” Lamine chimed in, referring to the Arabic phrase that means “all praise is due to God alone.” “I’m just grateful for whatever situation I’m in.”
Lamine, who worked as a fisherman in Morocco, said he’s been praying for God’s guidance this Ramadan so he can get a job and send money back home — and more immediately, so he can move out of the Astoria shelter he’s been staying at before he’s evicted after 30 days.
“Same,” Chabab, who studied law in Morocco, responded in Arabic. The two had arrived in New York City from California three days earlier after crossing the U.S.-Mexican border in early March.
Chabab understood only a few phrases in English — but among them was “the American Dream.”
He has always wanted to come to the United States as a child, he said, and had decided to take a leap of faith as his opportunities and freedom felt limited at home.
“Why would you want to live in a country where you’re not able to make your dreams come true?” Chabab said. “This is a country of chances. When people smile at me here, I feel hope.”
Grab-and-go Iftar meals are available for free during Ramadan while supplies last, starting at 6 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays at Malikah, located at 25-15 Steinway St., Astoria