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Frenetic Fast: Navigating Casablanca during Ramadan as a non-Muslim
This first day of Ramadan, I share the experience of spending time during the Holy Month in Morocco — as a non-Muslim.
Ramadan is a time of fasting, spiritual reflection, and charity across the Muslim world, and some years ago, I spent two weeks in Morocco during the month that marks God’s revelation of the Holy Qu’ran to the Prophet Muhammad. Looking back, my mind applies an absurd but accurate homograph to the experience — much of what I associate with the word “fast” is that I was told I needed to be as mindful of the traffic as I was of righteous food ways and customs. In this cosmopolitan commercial hub of four million people, my visual impression of Casablanca’s street “grid” was a succession of circles and angled boulevards swirling with cars, buses, and foot traffic throughout the day. With the advent of the fasting period, the daily swirl of traffic transformed into a blur during the evening countdown to the rush home to share ftour, then all but disappeared. My reflection on the time I spent there rushes back as a kinetic memory.
I knew already that the primary outward symbol of the fast is the abstention from food and drink…
