Organizers and volunteers of the Muslim Foster Care Association (MFCA) hosted a buffet-style meal and celebration for its third annual Ramadan iftar, bringing Muslim foster youth and families together.

Iftar is the meal where Muslims break their fast during Ramadan.

There was a row of savory food from the halal restaurant Sukho Thai in Dearborn Heights, and a table full of sweet treats like knafeh and enormous Macadamia cookies.

MFCA Co-founder Sameena Zahoor welcomed the attendees. 

“I want to thank the families and the foster parents and the families are helping the foster parents and the foster youth that are here today,” she said.

Many Muslims spend time fasting, praying, and doing extra worship with a community during Ramadan. However, many Muslim foster children in Michigan end up spending Ramadan in non-Muslim foster homes — alone. 

MFCA wanted to provide a space for the youth to be in community with others.

Salifu Mahmoud previously lived in a non-Muslim home as a foster youth since resettling from Ghana about three years ago. He now lives in independent housing in Canton. 

He says fasting during Ramadan is an important part of his religious practices.

“Living with someone who is not like Muslim, like foster care, it’s kind of hard in Ramadan,” he shared.

Mahmoud says his former foster care provider was unaware of his religion or obligations during Ramadan — such as waking up early to eat suhoor, the morning meal before fasting, or praying Taraweeh in congregation at a mosque during Ramadan nights. 

This year Mahmoud is staying with a Muslim family during Ramadan, allowing him to experience the familial and communal practices of the month.

“Since I moved to America, this is my best Ramadan,” he said, reflecting that it reminds him of his Ramadans in Africa. “They [his Muslim foster parents] treat me like their kids, showing me love.” 

At the iftar, Tonja Baker, a therapist who works for Whaley Children’s Center in Flint, came to learn more about MFCA.

“I was connected through this program for one of our youth at the campus, and managed to be able to bring her down and have her enjoy, you know, Iftar, and be able to just meet and greet with the other families that are here,” she said.

It’s important for the staff to learn culturally competent care to provide services or Muslim youth, Baker said, and the center tries to link Muslim youth to mosques in the area, but resources are scarce.

In addition to the iftar, MFCA passed out Ramadan 215 baskets filled with goodies like dates, halal marshmallows, and a Target gift card to Muslim foster youth in Michigan. 

Shereen Abunada, director of operations at MFCA, says she’s been working to increase the number of Muslim foster parents, but many are feeling burnout.

“That happens when parents have a placement that doesn’t go as well as they had hoped,” she said.

There are about 10 licensed Muslim foster families for the state’s 250 Muslim foster youth, 50 more than last year.

Abunada says the number of Muslim youth in the system has increased. In anticipation of potentially changing immigration policies, resettlement agencies recently expedited travel for Muslim foster youth from West African countries.

“So we’ve had an influx of about 50 to 70 youth that have just recently arrived in the in the past couple months,” she said.

Abunada says unaccompanied refugee minors feel vulnerable.

“A lot of them are also just the fear of being deported, the fear of being targeted. A lot of these kids are just by themselves, kind of going back to their own, their home countries, or trying to find other places to be,” she said.

Abunada says organizations and agencies are working to protect the children.

Hosting the iftar was one way to create a community for the foster youth, as they navigate the next steps in their journeys.

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February is Black History Month and WDET’s Detroit Evening Report is collecting Black History stories from listeners.

Iola Corbett, also known as Sister Ameedah, is the author of the book “Growing Up Muslim and the Journey Continues,” a story about being born and raised in Detroit.

Corbett’s family was a part of the Nation of Islam when she was a child.

“That was unbelievable, because I remember it like my first time going with [my father] to the temple. At that time, because it was we had a restaurant, the temple was right around the corner,” she shared.

Over the years she met Malcolm X, who visited her family’s restaurant in Detroit often.

“My mother was an excellent cook, so he had dinner with my dad every day, so I got to hear him, and I would serve him. He was a big influence in my family’s life,” she said.

As part of growing up in the Nation of Islam, Corbett said she was a part of something bigger.

“It still gave me a purpose of who I was, who I wanted to be close with my community,” she explained.

There were many businesses, an apartment building and a bookstore that were part of the network.

“We were about African American people, because back in the day, and I’m sure when my dad come up here, I was amazed that he came here and drove, you know, because I remember going down south with him, and it was you couldn’t go in the bathroom. You couldn’t drink out of the faucet. So when we got around people that looked like us and were happy to and treated us royally, you couldn’t have anything but love for that,” she said.

“When we got around people that looked like us and were happy to and treated us royally, you couldn’t have anything but love for that.” — Iola Corbett

Her family converted to Sunni Islam as part of a mass conversion under the guidance of Imam Warith Deen Mohammed in the 1970s.

Corbett worked in Detroit in several roles, including as a factory worker and machine operator for the Detroit Oil Company. She also became first Black female president of Local Lodge 82 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW).

“I conduct the meetings and all that. But I also went on a tour of some of the unions around the city. I got to go to Halifax, Nova Scotia, you know, you travel to see what other unions or other of your union members were doing,” she explained.

The larger union 698 took over local union 82.

She says she wrote “Growing Up Muslim” as a way to preserve her family’s legacy.

“We need to know things about our history, and I wanted the community to know children and my grandchildren, and now I have lots of great grandchildren. I got to really expound about how I grew up, so they would know. Because, you know, my mom is gone, my dad is gone, so they never met him. I want them to know what great people that they were.”

Corbett said she’s working on a new book expanding on her life in Detroit.

Hear our full conversation with Corbett using the audio player above.