The annual interfaith iftar and dinner was an opportunity to celebrate the diversity among different religious communities while recognizing the unifying virtues present in many faiths.

With more than 150 in attendance at the Islamic Center of Yorba Linda on Wednesday, March 20, a gathering that included city officials, business leaders, law enforcement officials and members of the center’s congregation, the turnout was among the largest in the 17-year history of the annual interfaith iftar.

“As our event continues to grow and become more popular every year, it’s really wonderful to see the support that we get from our local Yorba Linda community and surrounding areas,” said Aliya Yousufi, the center’s director of outreach.

The dinner was held on the 10th day of Ramadan, a month-long period of spiritual rejuvenation for Muslims around the world.

For the entire holy month, Muslims refrain from food and water from sunrise through sunset, at which time, they break their fast with a prayer and a meal, called an iftar.

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“The main significance of the event is to get the faiths of different denominations together and sit down and come to know each other, express the feelings about it so that this could be a better world to live in,” said Aslan Dada, an outreach coordinator and one of the founding members of the center. “You know, the way things are right now everywhere in the world, all we need is peace. And if you look at this place, you will see what an amazing peaceful place it’s going to be with people from all walks of life.”

The evening began with a recitation from the Quran followed by a Sikh prayer and a Christian prayer.

Keynote speakers included Rabbi Joseph Mendelsohn from the Reform Temple of Laguna Woods; Yorba Linda Mayor Tara Campbell; Dr. Sana Tayyen, the center’s senior outreach advisor and professor of religious studies at Redlands University; and Gail Sterns, dean emerita of the Wallace All Faiths Chapel at Chapman University.

The theme of this year’s iftar and dinner was “Gathering in Gratitude,” a theme interwoven in the messages delivered by every speaker.

The tendency of human nature is often to focus on what is lacking, so expressing gratitude can be difficult, Mendelsohn said. But true gratitude starts with an honest accounting of “what you have, the pluses and the minuses,” the rabbi said.

“So many commonalities yet so many differences, and we are thankful to be standing here together, sitting here together, with our commonalities and our differences,” Mendelsohn said. “You know, so many people think that being different all of a sudden is going to create tension. But when you think of it, differences add spice.”

“The best cookbook has not one flavor, but a variety of flavors in the same dish. That’s when it really tastes great. And we, being a group of people with differences, really make it such a wonderful event.”

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Tayyen said gratitude builds patience, and patience builds character, which then reinforces gratitude.

In Ramadan, the act of fasting requires patience with the fasting person persevering in preventing oneself from submitting to the urges of desire, she said.

“And God recognizes this with a great reward,” Tayyen said. “Out of this practice of fasting emerges the building of character such that when adversity does fall onto our shoulders, we may have some training to deal with the difficulties.”

The center was founded 17 years ago in a small warehouse in Yorba Linda. The congregation has grown over time, and in 2018, the center moved into the larger building it now occupies.

As a policy analyst with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Los Angeles, Yousufi said the number of xenophobic incidents occurring in recent months has increased dramatically.

“It’s no secret that the past year, and especially the past several months, have been difficult for many of our faith communities,” Yousufi said. “As we gather here today to break bread and enjoy this uplifting event … I think it’s a reminder that there continues to be work that we need to do and why occasions like this are so important to continue the interfaith dialogue that we are all committed to and that we need to also spread to the rest of the spheres of influence that we have.”