LONDON, Oct 4 (NNN-APP) -- The month long Ramadan Festival closed its series of groundbreaking arts and cultural events with an array of musicians and performers from around the Muslim world exhibiting their talent in the British capital on the eve of Eid-ul-Fitr.

The event at the Barbican Arts Centre provided an assorted setting for the unique occasion held to mark the end of the holy month. Arts Crafts and literature exhibitions were accompanied by a performance by Pankaj, Silat, Mediational Sufistic and Martial Arts.

The Qawaali took centre stage at the event marrying music and spiritual cultural humanism in a way that made it accessible to all. Sajid Ahmed Khan Qawwal Ensemble treated the guests and visitors to devotional music from the shrines of Pakistan spanning Arabic, Urdu and Persian languages with lyrics from Sufi poets and mystics.

For hundreds of visitors at the venue, the sound Tabla, Dholak and Sitar and the band’s rendition of sufi Islamic singing was a special treat which throughout captivated their imagination.

Supported by the US, Dutch and Egyptian Embassies in London, the Festival successfully partnered the Notting Hill Carnival with Al Tanoora Whirling Dervishes, the Victor and Albert Museum in Interfaith tours and Sufi Dhikrs at St Etheburga’s Centre for Peace and Reconciliation amongst many others performances.

During the course of the festival, an innovative ‘Fast & Feed a Friend’ campaign was also launched in which Mosques were asked to open their doors to the British Homeless.

More than 50 volunteers went out to city centres, homeless points, tube stations and community centres to feed the hungry and just to interact with those who do not know about the spirit of hospitality that the holy month generates.

The festival Director Syed Mohsin Abbas summarised the month long events as the first ever transnational expression of the Culture of Ramadan with hundreds of events all over Holland, Norway and Great Britain.

He told media : “It was great to see mainstream British society enjoying music, visual arts and food from the Muslim World. The events of this month are already leading to greater dialogue understanding and therefore is bound to lead to enduring friendship between people of different faiths & cultures.”

Abbas regretted that the Muslim communities were only being talked about in the sense of religion and political Islam and without the context of its varied cultures. Such narrative, he said, was distorting the true spirit of Islam and doing a great deal of harm to Muslims communities in the west, especially British Muslims.

“Ramadan Festival is a clear message to both Muslims and mainstream British society that it is possible to share common platforms and spaces regardless of colour, creed or religion. Muslims must engage more proactively outside the religious narrative in a language which communicates effectively with the rest of society.” – NNN-APP