The city’s premier Ramadan event, the Houston Iftar, will usher in its 27th year on Sunday.
But the longstanding tradition is facing a reckoning over a political wedge between organizers and some Muslim community members who no longer feel represented by the iftar.
READ MORE: Pro-Palestine demonstrators disrupt Mayor John Whitmire’s address at boycotted Houston Iftar
The Houston mayor’s keynote address has long been a signature feature of Houston Iftar, but that tradition is being questioned by some Muslim residents who don’t view Mayor John Whitmire as an ally to their community. What began as an event meant to unify Muslims has turned into an ongoing debate on how to approach the intersection between faith and politics.
Zahoor Gire serves as the executive director of the Al-Noor Society of Greater Houston, which withdrew from the iftar in 2024 due to humanitarian concerns for Palestinians.
As Israel’s war in Gaza raged on, Israel had killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in response to Hamas’ deadly attack on Oct. 7, 2023. Many Muslim Houstonians viewed the mayor’s refrain from calling for a ceasefire as a moral failure.
Tensions reached a boiling point that year when demonstrators disrupted Whitmire’s speech, sporting red latex gloves to symbolize the Palestinians killed by Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. The protest marked a turning point in the event’s history as the relationship soured between event organizers who maintain the evening is apolitical, and critics who say politics are now baked into it.
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“A united iftar would have been a good one to be had, and we would have felt very welcomed and engaged with the city,” said Gire, who was one of the event’s initial founders. “But it seems like there isn’t any specific one that everyone sanctions.”
Houston Iftar coordinator Saeed Sheikh and Whitmire’s office did not respond to requests for comment from the Houston Chronicle. Later in 2024, Whitmire accused a coalition of pro-Palestinian activists of being paid by Iran without sharing proof. He also unsuccessfully proposed a ban targeting protests near residential homes.
The rift peaked in 2024, but it remains a sore spot for many who don’t see their Muslim faith reflected in a key Ramadan event.
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As a longtime attendee of the Houston Iftar, Zeeshan Ishaq worries the Houston Iftar has become more focused on optics rather than impact. Ishaq, who ran for Fort Bend County Commissioner in Precinct 3, has also spelled his last name as “Isaac” in the past.
“Breaking bread together matters. It brings people together, and that has value,” Ishaq said. “But free gourmet meals and staged photos shouldn’t substitute for real dialogue or real progress.”
Mayor John Whitmire pauses during his speech to look at demonstrators at the “Houston Iftar” 25th Annual Ramadan Dinner at the Bayou Events Center on Sunday, March 17, 2024, in Houston (Annie Mulligan/Contributor)
What is the Houston Iftar?
The word “Iftar” refers to the meal Muslims have at sundown after breaking their fast in the 29 or 30 days of their holy month of Ramadan. The Houston Iftar, scheduled to be held Sunday at the Bayou City Event Center this year, includes sponsors such as the Islamic Society of Greater Houston and the sister city associations including Houston Karachi and Houston-Istanbul, according to its website.
The event is touted as a display of solidarity for the Muslim community and an opportunity for people from other cultures and faiths to learn about Ramadan. Even as it continues to draw criticism from within the Muslim community, the Houston Iftar reached its full capacity this year the same week registration for it opened.
It isn’t just Whitmire some community members have taken issue with. The event’s longtime chief patron is Midland oil executive S. Javaid Anwar, who is one of Gov. Greg Abbott’s top donors. Abbott, who usually shares a video message that plays during the iftar, has drawn criticism from some Muslim Texans for his efforts to keep “Sharia law” out of Texas.
Saleema Gul, a Houston-area community activist, participated in the 2024 protest at the event and said Anwar’s role as chief sponsor is frustrating because she sees him as a business leader rather than a person who meaningfully builds a movement.
Gul doesn’t think the politics can be divorced from the event.
“Whitmire and Abbott have spat on our faces, said the ugliest things of our communities,” Gul said. “And these people are smiling, taking photos and probably posting it on social media as if they have all this access to power. They don’t.”
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Andrew Mahaleris, the governor’s press secretary, said in a statement to the Chronicle that Abbott’s actions “are targeted at radical groups like CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood, who have proven ties to terrorism and seek to forcibly impose Sharia law on Texans.” CAIR stands for the “Council on American-Islamic Relations.”
Mahaleris added: “Texans demand leaders who uphold the rule of law and relentlessly pursue those who threaten it. It’s shameful that these groups hide behind law-abiding members of their faith to deflect scrutiny from their own illegal conduct and activities.”
CAIRÂ is currently suing Abbott over his designation of it as a foreign terrorist organization, maintaining that it has only ever been a civil rights group. President Donald Trump’s administration labeled three Middle Eastern branches of the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations last month.
‘It’s totally nonpolitical’
Former Houston City Councilmember M.J. Khan said he watched the Houston Iftar grow from around 50 attendees under former Mayor Lee P. Brown’s administration to the substantial event with over 2,000 attendees. Last year, the Houston Karachi Sister City Association said more than 15,000 people were vying for only 1,800 available tickets.
Khan, who reveres the occasion and remains involved with it to this day, says he can understand the protestors’ grievances. But that doesn’t make it any easier to watch.
“It has been always a very harmonious event, uniting the community, bringing the people together,” Khan said. “And I hate for it to be a contentious event of this nature, because it’s totally nonpolitical.”
Responding to concerns from Muslim community members who are hesitant to embrace Whitmire and Abbott as speakers, Khan said it’s the office of the governor and mayor being invited, rather than the current officeholders.
READ MORE: Pro-Palestine demonstrators disrupt Mayor John Whitmire’s address at boycotted Houston Iftar
Ahmad Alyasin, another of the Houston Iftar’s founders, said Ramadan should never be mixed with politics. In 2024, he said he spoke at the event soon after Whitmire’s speech was interrupted by demonstrators.
“If you really are a true Muslim and believer, in Ramadan, you do not mix politic(s),” Alyasin added.
This article originally published at Why some Houston Muslims abandoned the city’s decades-old Ramadan tradition.