Kevin Stearns/University Photography

The Madrasa al-Rumman Islamic Children's Chorus of Ithaca performs a traditional song in Malaysian as part of a community banquet celebrating the end of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr, at Trillium Dining Hall Nov. 6.

About 300 people, Muslim and non-Muslim, students, faculty, staff and their families and community guests, gathered in Trillium dining hall Nov. 6 to take part in a shared meal.

The banquet celebrated Eid al-Fitr, the three-day Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the holy month in the Muslim calendar characterized by self-reflection and fasting from before first light to sunset, in keeping with a commandment and to get closer to God.

The event also revealed how diverse Cornell University's Islamic community is -- with campus Muslims hailing from more than 50 countries in addition to various regions of the United States -- highlighted by the native costumes some wore, from Pakistan, West Africa and Turkey.

"Americans tend to have a uniform image of Muslims," noted Shawkat Toorawa, assistant professor of Arabic literature and Islamic studies in the Department of Near Eastern Studies, who advises the Muslim Educational and Cultural Association (MECA), the student group sponsoring the event. "We wanted to show that Muslims are diverse -- we don't just come from the Middle East," said Toorawa, who is from Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar. "We are people like any other people -- we celebrate holidays with our children, we eat food that people don't traditionally associate with being Muslim, and we sing songs in languages other than Arabic."

Indeed, one of the evening's highlights was a performance by the Madrasa al-Rumman Islamic Children's Chorus of Ithaca that included a traditional Eid song in Malay and "This World Is Your World, This World Is My World," an English-language adaptation of the Woody Guthrie classic "This Land Is Your Land." Among the performers were Toorawa's two daughters, Maryam, 11, and Asiya, 8.

The menu featured Islamic dishes from around the world, including teriyaki beef from Japan, chapati bread from Trinidad, ratatouille from France and brownies from the United States, in addition to such Middle Eastern fare as tabbouleh and baklava. All the food was certified halal, or permissible under Islamic law.

Guests also were given fortune cookies with messages in the many languages that Islam embraces. Their task: To guess the message (no surprise -- "Happy Eid").

The keynote speaker, Kasim Kopuz, the prayer leader at the Johnson City, N.Y., Mosque and imam of the Islamic Organization of the Southern Tier, spoke of the human desire to acquire, dominate and control and warned that such behavior alienates people from their true selves as well as their relationship with God. He condemned the violence that can result from extreme views and stressed that God's way is one of peace. "Eid al-Fitr reminds us of our pure nature and to turn to God with that nature," he said, emphasizing the importance of doing so "in the presence of other human beings," such as at the Eid banquet.

The evening ended with a mock television quiz show, "Do you know Muslim people?" aimed at dispelling stereotypes, that had the audience laughing nonstop. Some of the panelists -- who played such stereotypical roles as brainy Asian-American, dumb jock and vain valley girl -- confused Ramadan with the Ramada Inn, a prophet with "profits from selling Persian rugs," and the Arabic word haraam, which means "forbidden" and generally refers to food and drink, with a sultan's harem. "I've got it! It's a whole bunch of ladies and just one guy," shouted one eager panelist.

This is the first year of a large Eid el-Fitr celebration involving the campus community, noted Toorawa, who stressed that such public events are a way to educate non-Muslims about Muslim customs. Past events have included an Iftaar banquet, organized by the Cornell Society for Islamic Spirituality (CSIS), another student group that co-sponsored the Eid banquet. Toorawa hopes that other Muslim festivals, such as Muhammad's birthday, will be similarly shared with others.

Sami El-Rakshy, a Ph.D. candidate in nutritional genomics from Alexandria, Egypt, enjoyed the camaraderie and excitement of the event and said it reminded him of large Eid family celebrations at home, when relatives would visit and his mother would cook favorite dishes.

And Omer Bajwa, a Ph.D. student in Near Eastern Studies, who delivered an after-dinner talk and slide show on some of the world's most significant mosques, said the event was "mumtaz" -- excellent.

Three of the event's organizers, Nida Bajwa, Saqib Hasan and Aneesa Mitchell, all MECA officers, delivered a welcome address. Lukman Nasaruddin and Wan Lutfi Wan Johari recited from the Qur'an and chanted the customary Eid takbeer prayer. The student actors in the quiz show skit were: Ali Ansari, Ali Faramarzalian, Oluseyi Fashusi, Karen Lieu, Drake Mayshak, Nausheen Rokerya and Wasif Syed. The event had 21 co-sponsors, including various Cornell departments, centers, offices, programs and organizations, the Johnson Museum, the Bartels family and several local businesses.