UK Firm Offers Free Ramadan Consultation

LONDON, October 3, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – With the advent of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a leading cross cultural training provider in the UK is offering free consultation and a guide for employers with Muslim staff to help them better understand the holy month and what it means to Muslims.

Kwintessential’s aim is to provide businesses with access to timely cultural knowledge on Muslims, Islam and the month of Ramadan, the PR Web reported Monday, October 3.

The firm has released a free downloadable file that offers employers a summary of these main issues, including looking at what Ramadan means to Muslims, the impact it has on their daily lives for a month and how in turn this impacts their working lives.

Entitled Ramadan and the Workplace, the Free downloadable resource for HR personnel on the needs of Muslim staff during Ramadan is available on the Web site.

In addition, the firm is also offering free consultation to HR staff and others over Ramadan about any aspect of Islam in the workplace.

The firm said that among the millions of people from Morocco to Malaysia that will fast everyday during Ramadan from sunrise to sunset for 30 days there is a significant numbers of Muslims working in offices in Europe and North America where Ramadan slips past unnoticed.

It said that although in countries such as Saudi Arabia , Iran and Indonesia where the majority of the population will be fasting, the social cycle changes to accommodate people’s needs, in Europe and North America the pace of life continues as normal.

This lack of awareness, the Web site added, can and does cause inconvenience, stress and unhappiness to practicing Muslims in the workplace.

Although many Muslims will be going through the same rigors as people in Syria or Singapore , Ramadan can be that little bit tougher for Muslims in the west, it said.

In countries with Muslim majority, work may start later due to people praying late into the night, it will certainly finish earlier to allow people to prepare for iftar (breaking of the fast) and the general pace of life drops down a couple of gears, especially for the important last 10 nights.

This will not take place in Europe due to the lack of cultural awareness within businesses nowadays, the PR Web reported.

“Although people may know who a Muslim is they may not appreciate what a Muslim does," it said.

“Unawareness of aspects of the religion such as food & drink, interaction between genders, moral obligations, prayers and holidays is widespread.”

As a result, it added, there are always stories of Muslims being invited to business lunches, not being provided with time or space to break their fasts at sunset or expected to work on the Eid holiday following Ramadan.

“Respecting cultural diversity in the workplace is simply best practice because If staff feel that they are being taken care of and understood on a personal level, a business will experience greater retention, morale and ultimately productivity.”

Ramadan is a very spiritual month for the Islamic world during which they will once again begin their annual exercise in spiritual and physical cleansing through fasting and other religious exercises.

Kwintessential is a cross cultural, communication and intercultural training, translation, interpreters and multilingual website design from the UK .