Hello!

Hi! My name is Amanda Duran and I am a secular humanist fasting for Ramadan.

So the first thing I should probably explain is what a secular humanist is. A secular humanist can be defined as someone who essentially lives by two basic principles: 1- treat all people with dignity, respect, and kindness (and when this says all people, it means ALL people, regardless of race, nationality, religion, political affiliation, ect.), 2- pursue knowledge (this in and of itself is for two reasons, self improvement and overall progression for mankind, either in the form of scientific discovery or increased understanding of each other). The next thing that one must know about secular humanism is that one lives by these principles WITHOUT a belief in any type of god/s, hence the "secular" in secular humanism.

Secondly, I should probably explain why I am choosing to fast for Ramadan. The obvious reason is because of my principles- I want to fast in order to pursue knowledge about it. But the reason I chose Ramadan, as opposed to just about any other practice in any other religion, is because since I was young, I have felt some kind of draw to the Middle East, and with the Middle East comes Islam.

To explain: I was born into a mixed race family from Orem, Utah. My dad is from El Salvador, and my mom is American, so growing up I was very sensitive to issues of race and diversity, and I believe that sensitivity is the reason I was drawn to Arab and Islamic culture. The first time I felt a pull was in the sixth grade. My class was reading a newspaper article about a hotel that ransacked because the owner was Arab. I remember there was a picture of one of the walls with the words "Go Home Terrorist!" spray painted on it. At first I was confused as to why the man's hotel was ransacked, but my teacher said that it was because the people who did it blamed this man for the 9/11 attacks. I looked at the photo again, and I remember thinking that the words "go home terrorist" sounded very familiar to me, except that instead of terrorist, I heard, "Go home illegal immigrant!" 

Throughout the rest of my school years, the issue of Islam, Arabs, and the terrorist attacks often came up, and even though I was ignorant about the religion and Arab culture at the time, I often found myself defending them.  As the debates continued, the more I felt a draw to study so I had more information to use when these discussions came up. 

Now I am a senior in the International Studies program at the University of Utah, and an avid student of Arabic. This upcoming year, I will finally get to spend some time in the Middle East, and I am desperate to learn as much as I can before I go. Not only do I want to improve my Arabic language skills, but I want to increase my understanding of the culture as much as possible, hence, I am taking the chance this year to fast for Ramadan.

However, as I am a non-Muslim, I am going to be doing a few things differently. Instead of making prayers at the times I am supposed to, I will be meditating at the prayer times instead. Also, as I won't be able to spend the day time focusing on the same religious beliefs, I will spend my days keeping in mind why I am fasting, and work to improve my knowledge of Islam and Arabic (probably by reading the Quran in Arabic... and maybe writing an Arabic story :p). 

Wish me luck! And good luck to everyone who is fasting!