{"id":24527,"date":"2013-07-08T15:10:08","date_gmt":"2013-07-08T19:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?p=24527"},"modified":"2016-09-30T16:03:21","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T20:03:21","slug":"another-religious-holiday-commercialized-ramadan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/07\/another-religious-holiday-commercialized-ramadan\/","title":{"rendered":"Another Religious Holiday Commercialized: Ramadan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

An interesting development, courtesy Huffington Post:<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Growing up in a mostly Christian neighborhood in southern Virginia in the 1970s and 1980s, Raana Smith remembers feeling \u201clacking\u201d around the holidays. While friends frolicked at Easter Egg hunts and got giddy over the presents under their Christmas trees each December, her Muslim family\u2019s traditions didn\u2019t translate well into toys or games that other kids could understand.<\/p>\n

Now 39 and the mother of a three-year-old, Smith is trying to help fill what she sees as a commercial hole for Muslim families raising kids in the United States. Ahead of Tuesday\u2019s first day of\u00a0Ramadan<\/a>, the Islamic month when Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset, her Islamic gifts and stationery business,\u00a0Silver Envelope<\/a>, has prepared hundreds of Ramadan wares for shipping. They range from an $8.50 Ramadan cookie decorating package to a $15 \u201cRockets \u2018n\u2019 Robots\u201d Ramadan countdown kit (the concept is similar to that of an Advent Calendar) and, for the ambitious, a $69.95 \u201cmoon-sighting party\u201d bundle (the holiday period begins and ends with the viewing of the new moon).<\/p>\n

\u201cTo say Ramadan is busy for us is an understatement,\u201d says Smith, who splits her time between Doha, Qatar and Richmond, Va. \u201cWe are targeting people who are looking to revive the Islamic spirit, who are looking to create their own American traditions grounded in Islam, who want to help children get excited about being Muslim through fun products and characters.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the Muslim community expands \u2014 Pew researchers have projected America\u2019s 2.6 million Muslim population will\u00a0nearly double<\/a>\u00a0over the next two decades \u2014 and more native-born Muslims make up America\u2019s Muslims, a growing number of Islam-related businesses are launching around the nation. While Muslim-owned retailers and services such as Halal butcher shops and Islamic Sunday schools have existed for decades, these new companies cater to a different market. They sell everything from clothing, music and makeup to toys, frozen dinners and cookbooks.<\/p>\n

Ramadan, the most important month on the Islamic calendar that ends with one of Islam\u2019s biggest holidays, Eid al-Fitr, is the prime time for the Muslim commercial market in the U.S. and even more so abroad\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026Meanwhile, in\u00a0Mecca<\/a>, the growth of five-star hotels and expensive travel packages for Muslims performing pilgrimage (umrah) during Ramadan has added to discussions of excess in a faith that emphasizes simplicity and accessibility.<\/p>\n

Though smaller, commercialism has also become a focal point in the Muslim-American community. When it comes to big corporations, Muslim outreach has been largely limited to selling pre-packaged halal foods (Whole Foods, for example, sells a halal line called Saffron Road). But questions remain among some Muslims about the relationship between Islam and business. Amid panels featuring Muslim entrepreneurs and a session on social media at the Muslim consumers\u2019 conference last year, there was a session on fashion industry titled, \u201cCan Timeless Values and Modern Style Coexist?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read more.\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An interesting development, courtesy Huffington Post: Growing up in a mostly Christian neighborhood in southern Virginia in the 1970s and 1980s, Raana Smith remembers feeling \u201clacking\u201d around the holidays. While friends frolicked at Easter Egg hunts and got giddy over the presents under their Christmas trees each December, her Muslim family\u2019s traditions didn\u2019t translate well […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[602,49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-muslims","category-this-that"],"yoast_head":"\nAnother Religious Holiday Commercialized: Ramadan<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An interesting development, courtesy Huffington Post: Growing up in a mostly Christian neighborhood in southern Virginia in the 1970s and 1980s, Raana\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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