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The Red and Black • Thursday. March 4. 1993 • 3
Muslims celebrate Ramadan
By ROB SHAPARD
Staff Writer
No food, drink, smoking or sexual
relations from sunrise to sunset.
This is the regimen many of the
almost 200 Muslim students at the
University began Feb. 23 and will
continue for 29 or 30 days, until the
appearance of the next new moon
marks the end of their fast.
These students are celebrating
Ramadan, a holiday whose obser
vance is one of Islam’s basic tenets.
The timing of the holiday is based on
Islam’s lunar calendar and is cele
brated throughout the Muslim
world.
Muslim students observing
Ramadan said they have several mo
tivations for fasting. First, they sim
ply must do it according to the dic
tates of their religion.
But they said the month is also a
atime they look forward to.
“You can look at it from two per
spectives,” said Azam Nizamuddin, a
graduate student from Chicago. “It’s
just another duty or sacrament that
must be performed as part of this re
ligion.”
But Nizamuddin said Ramadan
to him is more than a ritual.
“It really helps you focus your at
tention on God,” he said, “rather
than the negative aspects of life, like
tting a bad grade on an exam, or a
end letting you down in some way.
“Ramadan lets you embrace all
the negative aspects of life, and re
alize God is the most important
thing,” he said. “These negative as
pects are real, of course, but this
takes your attention away from
that.”
Sajid Lakhany, a junior from
Augusta who is president of the
Muslim Students Association, said
many Athens Muslims gather in the
evenings during Ramadan at the Al-
Huda Islamic Center, a mosque on
South Milledge Avenue.
Worshippers, as they do through
out the year, observe the day’s fifth
prayer, as well as a sixth prayer
which many choose to say during
Ramadan. They then break their
fast with a simple meal.
“It gets more people together,”
Lakhany said. “I like to go to the
gatherings and meet the people, and
sometimes you see somebody you
haven’t seen in a while, who sud
denly turns up.”
In addition to denying physical
desires from sunrise to sunset, some
use Ramadan to reconsider the way
they live, Lakhany said.
“The main purpose is that you
sort of put an extra caution on your
self to not say anything bad, or treat
people wrongly, or argue or fight, or
things of that nature,” he said.
“If you want to improve your
morals, your ethics, the way you
treat people, this is sort of a training
session,” Lakhany said.
Lakhany said Ramadan also tests
Muslims’ discipline, because no one
watches over worshippers to ensure
that they observe the fast.
“Fasting is something that no one
else knows about,” he said. “It is just
between you and God. It re-identifies
that relationship.”
Nizamuddin agreed the month
provides a challenge for Muslims, in
terms of religious devotion and per
ceived daily needs.
“It creates more discipline,” he
said. “You are able to refrain from
some things you think you need
throughout the rest of the year.”
Iman El-Maghribi, a religion and
microbiology student from Atlanta,
said she values Ramadan for the
glimpse the month provides at the
suffering of those who are truly
without food.
“When you see pictures of starv
ing people, it makes you feel sorry,”
she said. “But once you have fasted
for the first time in your life, you
physically sympathize with those
people. It humbles you.”
Staff: Open Bishop hearings
By MELANIE THOMAS
Staff Writer
University staff members are trying to open the
grievance hearing of a former botany department
member who received more than $5,000 in ques
tionable payments.
Former botany office manager Katie Bishop
was scheduled to begin her hearing Monday, but it
was postponed because the University found evi
dence linking Bishop to other illegitimate transac
tions.
Bishop was fired in November after officials
learned that she and Carla Ingram, another
botany employee, had paid their husbands more
than $50,000 in consultation payments from an ac
count of Joe Key, vice president for research.
Randall Akins, the staff representative for the
College of Agriculture departments based in the
Plant Sciences Building, raid a large number of
University staffers want to open the hearing.
“We want to be able to look at the parties when
they answer to see their responses,” he said. “Just
so we can have a little knowledge of what really
happened to Katie."
Sidney Brown, associate vice president for
Academic Affairs and coordinator of the grievance
process, called the hearing under University pro
cedure, which allows non-public personnel hear
ings.
Bishop requested that hearing be open, said
Ann Stoneburner, an assistant research botanist
acting as adviser to the grievance. Stoneburner
said they have not received any more details about
the other evidence the University has discovered.
University President Charles Knapp said the
University is ready to settle the issue, but he does
not want to rush it and sacrifice thoroughness.
“Everybody would prefer to have this resolved,”
Knapp said.
Mary Anne Locantro, administrative assistant
for the Office of Legal Affairs, said the coordina
tor’s office is still trying to set a hearing date.
Akins said he plans on going through the
Equity and Fairness in the Workplace Committee
of the Staff Council to open the hearing.
Committee chairwoman Lois Morrison said
Akins has not given the committee any proposal,
but he has discussed opening the hearings with
the committee. Morrison said she is not sure yet
how the committee could change the University
policy or make an exception.
University policy allows any hearing to be
closed if either party wants it closed. Akins said if
the personnel member does not mind having the
hearing open then it should be open. He said the
group may employ its own lawyer or attempt to
change University policy.
Henrietta Tucker, senior accounting assistant,
is interested in opening the hearing. Tucker said
at least half the University campus and a quarter
of Plant Sciences want the hearing open.
“We want to know if something is being cov
ered up by the administration,” she said.
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