I live in Cheetham Hill, a melting pot of cultures with several community organisations and places of worship, where gatherings like the Cheetham Festival and Khizra Mosque’s Ramadan Iftar build community cohesion and help tackle hatred in all its forms.
Over the last few weeks we have seen the religious festivals of Vaisakhi, Passover and Easter being curtailed during the lockdown.
Now Muslims like myself are starting the holy month of Ramadan, which will not be like any observed before. There will be no communal gatherings with families and friends or congregational prayers at the mosque and no sense of the community that we are all accustomed to.