Arabian television station Al Jazeera is currently making a documentary on the lives of Icelandic Muslims which will be aired in December.
The documentary features how Muslims honor Ramadan at the edge of the Arctic and then the crew will travel to New Zealand to study the religious practices of Muslims at the other end of the world during this holiest month of the Islamic calendar, Fréttabladid reports.
Among interviewees in Iceland are Ólafur Ali Halldórsson, who leads prayer at the Muslim Association of Iceland, and filmmaker Egill Noor Prunner.
Halldórsson converted to Islam 20 years ago but Prunner in February of this year so this is his first fast. Prunner’s mother is also interviewed in the documentary.
“She was a little doubtful at first after I converted but now she has seen how good it was for me so she is content today,” he said.
Halldórsson said the film crew was especially interested in seeing how the rules of Ramadan aren’t as strictly followed in Iceland as in other parts of the world; the fast is broken before complete sundown. “That would be unthinkable in most other countries.”
Usually Muslims fast from dawn to dusk but in Iceland even the days of late summer are very long; in late June the sun hardly sets at all. Ramadan takes place between August 1 and 29 this year.