The sweets were abundant and the smiles hardly wavered from the faces of the guests at the West Valley Muslim Association’s Eid celebration. People poured in by the dozens at the empty Macy’s in Cupertino to mark the end of a nearly month-long fast with a prayer service and plenty of food.
The WVMA has been hosting the celebration for nearly as long as it’s been around–eight years now–on Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road. Its congregants hail from all over the West Valley region, including the cities of Saratoga, Sunnyvale, Campbell and Cupertino, as well as West San Jose.
Earlier in the month, the mosque held a Ramadan event, inviting those outside of the Muslim community to “break fast” with them. Around 100 people from the community, including Saratoga City Council members Mary-Lynne Bernald and Emily Lo attended the event, as did Cupertino Mayor Rod Sinks and council members Savita Vaidhyanathan and Gilbert Wong.
“The event has been growing in size almost exponentially every year,” said Safeer Mohiuddin, a communications director for WVMA. “We are still growing at a very fast pace.”
Referred to by Muslims as Ramadan, the 29- or sometimes 30-day fast commemorates the first revelation of the Quran to the prophet Muhammad, according to Islamic belief, and is regarded as one of the five obligatory acts in Islam. During this time, Muslims refrain from a number of things, including food and drinks, smoking and sex from dawn until sunset.
WVMA was founded in 2007 as an offshoot of the Muslim Community Association, one of the largest mosques in the Bay Area, and at the time served as a satellite mosque for the MCA which was at least a 20-minute drive for most people in the West Valley.
“We started to notice that there is a significant Muslim population here that doesn’t get required attention because the MCA is so far away,” Mohiuddin said.
Today, the mosque is led by two religious directors, Alaeddin El-Bakri and Bilal Elsakka, and is charity-oriented, supporting families with kids that need financial assistance, said Mohiuddin.
“We collect charity as an organization and we distribute it to the local needy around these communities or in the San Jose area,” he said.
The WVMA offers Sunday school services at the Saratoga Elementary School and routinely rents the Saratoga Prospect Center from the city for prayer services on Fridays, the Ramadan open house and nightly prayers during Ramadan as well as classes for kids and monthly dinners. The venue is only temporary, however, and the mosque’s board of directors have been struggling in their search for a permanent home, said Mohiuddin.
“It’s really tricky, because given the size of our community, we need something that’s like a good two acres or so at least,” he said. “So right now we are working with [Saratoga] to find a suitable building.”
WVMA will host another celebration on Sept. 24 to commemorate Eid al-Adha, the second major holiday celebrated by Muslims each year. The event will be open to the public.
