My name is May Harimad.
I am a staff editor with New York Times Opinion.
And this week I wrote a piece on the complicated nature of celebrating Ramadan and Eid in the wake of the war in Gaza.
This year's Ramadan is very different than Ramadan's of years past.
It's a really somber one.
Since October 7th and the ongoing war in Gaza,
the Muslim community has really felt the effects of the staggering death toll there and the ongoing violence there.
Muslims grow up with the idea of injustices that Palestinians face forefront of their minds.
It's something that our imams,
our preachers have always taught us to look to.
So growing up in a Muslim community,
often the subject of Palestinians comes up and when there's outbreaks of war,
when there's outbreaks of violence, the Muslim community,
regardless of your ethnicity, rallies around Palestinians,
rallies around this cause.
During the month of Ramadan,
it's a built in time for Muslims to commune with one another.
We see each other at the mosque,
going to iftar dinners when it's time to break our fast.
I haven't been to a single iftar dinner where Gaza was not mentioned.