REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, DEPOK -- Despite being away from his family in Thailand, Ikrom Ingding, a Muslim international student at the University of Indonesia, found celebrating Eid festivities in Indonesia to be a happy experience.
“I am happy to celebrate Eid with Muslims in Indonesia,” he said in a statement from his university on Saturday.
He spoke of having performed the Eid prayer with his fellow Thai student, Anas.
Ingding said that he found various Ramadan activities in Indonesia to be interesting. Attending an Iftar event with friends was a rare occurrence for him, as he usually broke the fast only with family back in Thailand.
He said that this year, the Thai government declared a holiday for several days for the traditional festival of Songkran, which coincided with the Eid day. Hence, his family enjoyed a longer Eid holiday.
He also noticed that the Indonesian people's tradition of returning to their hometown during Eid was similar to what the Thai people usually do during Songkran.
Ingding said that fasting in Indonesia was his first to experience Ramadan in a Muslim-majority country, as Muslims in his home region of Narathiwat Province are considered a minority.
"I felt warmth and comfort because every mosque here provided food for Iftar in a very appropriate way," he remarked.
He also commended the solidarity and tolerance among Indonesian people during Ramadan, for instance, when some people wake their neighbors up for suhoor, or the pre-fasting meal.
"The suhoor here is lively because some people went around to wake others up. There was no such thing in Thailand," Ingding said.
Tolerance during Ramadan was also evident during class activities, for instance, when lecturers allowed students to attend class by online means or instructed exams to be done outside class and taken home during Ramadan, he noted.
The student stated that experiencing Ramadan in Indonesia convinced him that Indonesia is a comfortable place to perform rituals during the Islamic fasting month.
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