A temple in Kerala holds iftar for Muslims who helped to rebuild it

Jun 09, 2017

KERALA, India: Amid all the reports of communal tensions, minorities being targeted and the row over the cattle slaughter ban, a Hindu temple in Kerala’s Malappuram district held an iftar party for Muslims observing Ramadan fast.

The Lakshmi Narasimhamurthy Vishnu Temple, in Punnathala, invited Muslims for a vegetarian iftar party. Some 500 Muslims, including men women and children from the area, attended the iftar.

As unusual as it sounds, the temple authorities held the iftar as a token of appreciation to the members of the Muslim community, who had contributed to the restoration of the century-old temple.

The iftar was a part of the weeklong Punaprathishta (restoration) of the idol and Naveekarana Kalasham (renovation) at the temple. The restoration ceremony which began on Monday will conclude on Sunday.

Temple authorities said the initial plan was to hold a traditional sadhya, but it was changed to iftar, so that members of Muslim community can also be a part of the celebrations.

“We take each and every family here into consideration irrespective of religion to plan our programmes and celebrations. Earlier, we had planned a sadhya as part of the temple celebrations. Since it is the month of Ramadan, we changed our plan and decided to organise an iftar party so that our Muslim brothers and sisters, too, could participate,” Cherusseri Unnikrishnan, the temple committee president said.

He also said that the people of the village live like a family and religion has never been a dividing factor.

He also said that beside financial contributions, youths from the Muslim community had joined hands with the Hindus during the restoration works.--By Bobins Abraham, Indiatimes