Friday night saw hundreds gather at the Pier Head to break fast together at Taste Ramadan, an event during the month when Muslims fast, pray and eat together.
Among those finding community at the public event was Omid, 32, a former interpreter and cultural advisor for British forces in Afghanistan, who's never been to an event like Taste Ramadan. This is his first Ramadan since arriving in Liverpool with his wife when the Taliban seized control of his country last year.
Omid's background made it easier to find friends in a new city, but others like his wife, who is unfamiliar with the language and culture here, find it harder to adapt. Once a plumber, carpenter and electrician, Omid is currently looking for apprenticeships in the solar industry while recovering from the mental scars of being shot and seeing death while living in Afghanistan.
READ MORE: Moving pictures as hundreds pray at Pier Head during Ramadan
He was surprised to find many of the spices from home here in Liverpool, but he's had to adjust to traveling further to find halal food, and to not having family around for iftar, when Muslims break fast at sunset during Ramadan. He said: "I'm not saying it's harder, but it's different. Back home, we used to spend it with neighbours, we'd gather a lot.
"Before the evening, while we were preparing for iftar, we'd be with our entire family. We were preparing food together and everyone was doing things. But here, it's just me and my wife. It's a bit difficult for us, and it's a bit different. Besides that, everything is nice, it's comfortable. Now this, [Taste Ramadan], is a big experience for me. It's wonderful finding people together."
Omid went to the Pier Head on Friday evening for Taste Ramadan, a public iftar event where the city's Muslims, and faith and civic leaders, to hear speeches and poetry, pray together and break fast together during Ramadan. It's the second time the Liverpool Region Mosque Network has organsied this event during the month of daytime fasting, the first time being in 2019 when more than 4,000 people attended.
Farhad Ahmed, a trustee at the network of 12 mosques, said: "It's really symbolic, not only because of who we've got here, but if I think of ancestry and colonialism and merchant seamen, there would have been lots of Muslims throughout the ages coming here to this spot, so it's a spiritual feeling, it's quite profound. And I think the iconic location just adds to that."
Taste Ramadan was organised by a team of volunteers, with young people playing a key role in creating the event, including through the booking of comedian Tez Ilyas, and by leading the evening prayer. Among the organisers were two 19-year-olds from Toxteth, Abu Bakr and Abdi Adhmed, who hope to study computer science, and politics, philosophy and economics respectively.
Abdi said: "It's quite heart-warming seeing everyone come together, sharing food, sharing friendship, having a comedian on." Abu added: "It's amazing to see this type of pluralism and this type of unity, and hopefully more social benefits. You see people's smiles and they're delightful. This type of happiness makes us happy."
Fozia's Kashmiri Street Food, based on Lodge Lane in Toxteth, supplied boxes containing dates, cake, pakora and a chickpea curry for when people broke fast after the evening prayer, which was preceded by a series of speekers and some poetry.
Mayor Joanne Anderson spoke of the importance of reflecting on people less fortunate than ourselves, pointing to the suffering caused by the war in Ukraine. This was mirrored by one woman who told the ECHO: "There's a lot going on around the world, in the Middle East, for example in Yemen, the humanitarian crisis. What people normally do from a young age, how we teach them - obviously you don't have to do it from a young age, but we teach them the significance of it.
"People are suffering with no food, some people don't have water. We do, we have these luxury items where they don't, so we just think about it, think about and think if we were in their position, and then it makes it easier for us because we're breaking our fast anyway, but there are some people who can't break their fast."
