After praying Jumah in London Muslim Mosque, I struck up a conversation with students hanging out in the Reception Hall.
Thabet, Adel, and Zowrez are university students. Two of them locally at Western, one at Ryerson in downtown Toronto.
All of them are here for Ramadan.
Our conversation went all over the place, but one thing stuck out more than many others.
University students struggle with balancing what makes up their “Family” during Ramadan. Is it their real mom-pop-siblings family perhaps living far away in their hometowns? Or is Family the new group of people they greet and meet and eat Iftar with during Ramadan in their College Towns?
London is a College Town. It does have a great many number of Muslims attending the University of Western Ontario, and it’s in reasonable walking distance of this Masjid.
For these three, it was no contest. Their real family trumps their Masjid family hands down.
I wonder how many other Students who prayed Jumah here today feel the same way?
