In many Catholic parishes, people are gathering for Friday night fish fries because they abstain from eating meat on Fridays during Lent. In Muslim homes, people are gathering every evening for iftar dinners to break their sunrise-to-sunset fast from all food and drink, including water, during the holy month of Ramadan.
Lent, the 40-day period before Easter on the Christian calendar, always occurs at this time of year. Ramadan rotates around the calendar, taking place in various seasons because the Islamic calendar is calculated based on the lunar calendar. This year, though, they coincide, with Christian fasting taking place at the same time as Muslim fasting.
Sabeel Ahmed, director of the GainPeace project, an Islamic outreach organization that educates Americans about Muslims, drew comparisons between Lent and Ramadan…