{"id":1182,"date":"2022-04-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:3000\/fortitude-through-faith-the-muslim-pandemic-experience\/"},"modified":"2022-05-06T20:37:43","modified_gmt":"2022-05-06T20:37:43","slug":"fortitude-through-faith-the-muslim-pandemic-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.interfaithamerica.org\/article\/fortitude-through-faith-the-muslim-pandemic-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Fortitude Through Faith: The Muslim Pandemic Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n American Civic Life<\/span>\n

Fortitude Through Faith: The Muslim Pandemic Experience<\/h1>\n
\n By
Omar Suleiman, Rania Awaad and Taimur Kouser<\/address>\n <\/div>\n

April 1, 2022<\/p>\n <\/div>\n

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(RNS) — In March 2020, a month before Ramadan, Islam’s holiest time, many mosques around the world were shut down for the first time in living history. Not only did the accustomed daily communal prayers abruptly end; so did numerous social, educational and spiritual activities that define Ramadan.<\/p>\n

Even in Mecca, the doors to the holy sanctuaries were shuttered and hajj, the once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca required of all Muslims, was canceled.<\/p>\n

Two years later, Muslims’ pandemic story is still not over. Though we have adapted to new ways of working, socializing and worshipping, many of us are exhausted by what feels like endless uncertainty about an ill-defined world to come, not to mention the prospect of COVID-19 cases rising again.<\/p>\n

For many Muslims, as with others, this exhaustion is coupled with new, or newly intensified, mental health challenges such as anxiety, depression, trauma, substance use and suicidal ideation.<\/p>\n

There has certainly been no shortage of research and recommendations on what challenges people are experiencing and how best to alleviate them. Many of us have coped with the uncertainty of the past two years by bingeing a favorite Netflix show or eating our woes away with ice cream. For others, the pandemic has highlighted the necessity of more seriously addressing mental health. <\/p>\n

But a narrative is missing in our pandemic story, about the role that faith has played, and will likely continue to play, in helping us cope.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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