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| Ramadan "in a fridge" for Ghusub, a Palestinian in Lapland
ARVIDSJAUR, Sweden, Nov 21 (AFP) - Ghusub, a Palestinian refugee, lives in Swedish Lapland near the Arctic Circle where, in winter, the sun barely rises above the horizon. Here, in the remote dark North, Ramadan doesn't have quite the same feel as in his native land. "We're living in a refrigerator," he says as his friends Khaled, Ahmed and Zahra join him at his pizzeria for iftar, the breaking of the fast at sunset. The group bursts into laughter, nodding in agreement. BizVantage – When knowing counts: Business, Investing, Technology. Ghusub is one of just a handful of Muslims living in Arvidsjaur, a small village of 4,000 inhabitants -- and just as many lakes -- located about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of the Arctic Circle. He has lived in Sweden's far North for the past 13 years, quickly adopting many of the local customs, such as hunting grouse and fishing for trout. His establishment even bears the very Swedish name "Tre Kronor", or "Three Crowns", Sweden's national emblem representing the Christian Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Yet his accent immediately reveals his foreign origins. Outside, the mercury has dipped to minus 6 degrees Celsius (21 degrees Fahrenheit). It is 2:00 pm, and the sun, which has appeared only as a thin crack of light along the horizon, is about to set. This far north, daylight rarely pierces the darkness in winter. Muslims, who during the holy month of Ramadan are prohibited from drinking, eating, smoking and having sexual relations between sunrise and sunset, do not get off easy in the frozen North, however. Instead of fasting during Sweden's few daylight hours, Muslims here are expected to align themselves partially with the sunrise and sunset hours of North Africa. So while the sun here only appears at 8:30 am, and its last rays sink below the horizon by 2:00 pm, Ghusub and his friends fast between 5:40 am and 3:15 pm. "It's harder when Ramadan is in the summer," Ghusub says, recalling that the sun never sets in summertime. "The fast is naturally longer. If we respected the sun here, we wouldn't eat for a month." "I've fasted in 45-50 degrees (Celsius) in the Middle East, and couldn't eat until it was very late. It wasn't a problem," says Khaled, who is originally from Syria. "It's all in the mind. You just have to tell yourself that you're not hungry." With about 300,000 followers in Sweden, Islam is the second largest religion in this mainly Lutheran kingdom. Most Muslims live in the southern regions where the country's four mosques are located. For Ghusub, as for the one billion Muslims worldwide, Ramadan is a joyous occasion, burgeoning with festivities and elaborate feasts. In remote Arvidsjaur, however, Ghusub has to make do with a very limited selection of Swedish food. "In Sweden, 90 percent of the food contains pork, so for an abiding Muslim, it's mission impossible," complains the pizza-maker. He regularly travels a hundred kilometers (60 miles) to the coastal town of Skellefteaa to buy halal meat. Halal guarantees that Muslim butchering rites of slitting the animal's throat while it is still alive, and bleeding it out, have been followed. In addition, Ghusub says he's had a hard time connecting with people here, since there are few places for people to socialize, with only a few cafes and bars in town. In fact, on this day, the main street in Arvidsjaur is deserted after 6:00 pm and the village's only restaurant is closed because of a shortage of staff. In these conditions, Ramadan is almost like any other month. "I get up around 10:00 or 10:30 am, and I open the pizzeria at around 11:00 am. At 9:00 pm, I close and go home. I have dinner with my wife. We watch a movie, and I go to bed at around 2:00 am." It's now 3:15 pm, and it's time to break the fast. Ghusub drinks a large glass of water, places a small pack of chewing tobacco under his upper lip and pours himself a coffee. The same routine. Every day for 30 days. "It's a good month," Ghusub says. "Everything tastes different." gab/nl/po/bm Sweden-Ramadan
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