When Maha Alzia left her home country of Saudi Arabia for New Hampshire last week, she worried that she would be celebrating one of the most sacred festivals of Islam, Eid al-Fitr, alone.
Alzia, 28, moved to Plymouth this month for a yearlong master’s program in educational leadership at Plymouth State University. Her move fell during the last week of Ramadan, the holiest month of the Islamic calendar.
Alzia said she couldn’t help but feel lonely when she arrived in her new home, where she said “no one was Muslim or my nationality.”
Alzia longed for people to whom she could relate during this special time of year. She found that at the Concord mosque on Saturday, where roughly 80 people gathered for the Eid al-Fitr celebration, known as the “festival of breaking of the fast” at the end of Ramadan.
“Now I have people to talk to who understand,” she said, as she shared Arabic coffee and dates baked in Bisquick – traditional food for Ramadan – with her new friend, Suzan Abidi, also of Plymouth.
The Islamic Society of Greater Concord was established in 2002 to serve New Hampshire’s growing Muslim population. It followed after the state’s first Islamic Society, established in 1998 in Manchester.
When Concord’s Islamic society was created, it didn’t have an official headquarters, so the group held Friday prayers sporadically in the gym of the old Dame School in East Concord. It wasn’t until three years ago that the society rented out the community center on 18 Eastman St. to use as a mosque, where it still offers daily prayer services to its congregation of around 70 families. Most congregants attend on Fridays for mid-day Jumah prayer services.
Although Ramadan officially ended Wednesday, the Islamic society’s president, Hubert Mask, said it was important to hold an informal celebration at a time when most members of the congregation could attend.
One attendee was Ahlam Saeed, originally of Sudan, who has lived in New Hampshire for 17 years. She said there isn’t much diversity in Pembroke, where she lives and her children go to school.
“It’s difficult to live in a place where no one looks like me,” Saeed said.
The community at the mosque helped with that, she said.
“Here, I can talk to people in my own language and attend celebrations of my religion,” she said. “It makes it feel more like home.”
Part of Saturday’s celebration was also dedicated to presenting awards for the mosque’s Islamic school. The school, which is taught by Osama Taani, who is also the chairman of the math department at Plymouth State, runs for two hours every Sunday. At the school, children ages five to 14 learn how to read Arabic and the lessons of the Quran.
Mask said it offers Muslim children a chance to learn about their culture in a region where they otherwise might not.
“You don’t have many tutors running around here teaching Arabic, much less the Quran,” Mask said.
Taani said his students are eager to learn the Quran, which he calls the “constitution of Islam.”
“Most of these students are from non-Arabic speaking places, like India, Afghanistan or Africa, so it’s really a good opportunity for them,” he said.
Aliya Kamran, 13, of Belmont grew up learning Arabic from her mother, who hails from Pakistan. Kamran started teaching younger students Arabic letters for the past five weeks. She was one of four students to receive an award for service to the school and the mosque Saturday night.
Mask said in the last year, the Islamic society has been trying to hold more community events to spread awareness and give back to the city.
This spring, it prepared 100 chicken and rice meals for the congregation to give to the needy.
“We made it obligatory for everyone to take a bag of food, whether you needed it or not. And if you didn’t need it, you had to give it to somebody that did,” Mask said.
Giving to charity is a tenet of Islam that the congregation tries to follow whenever possible, Mask said.
“In Islam, we’re responsible for our neighbors, whether they’re Muslim or not,” he said. “Our neighbors are our neighbors, and we take care of them first.”
(Leah Willingham can be reached at 369-3305, or lwillingham@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @LeahMWillingham.)