By Rabeeya Mayet

My name is Rabeeya and I am an American Muslim born and raised in Culver City. If you would please read this and do a story on this the Muslim community of Culver City would really appreciate it.

Every year in Ramadan my family and I go to the mosque to to break our fast, to pray and to enjoy the company of members of the muslim community. The emotions it envokes is unparalleled.

Then covid-19 hit. The iftars (dinners), the group prayers, and conversations with close strangers were all gone.

Then something amazing happened: the mosque got a permit from Culver City's City Hall allowing for the recitation of athan (call to prayer) on a loud speaker.

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It was for less than two minutes, but for the muslim community, it was timeless. The muslim community felt like it was in fragments but this glued some of the pieces back together. I sat in my car with my family to hear the athan and it brought me to tears.

As I looked around, I saw people of various races, religions, and age groups scattered around the mosque to hear the athan. Knowing that I had a community, Muslim and non-Muslim, that would allow for this to happen humbled me. It showed me that even though everything was different this year, we were still strong and that everything would be ok. It felt as if we were still breaking our fasts together.

Three days later, the athan stopped. It stopped because a few select individuals complained about the noise.

A whole community was shattered yet these few complaints was what mattered to Culver City's City Hall.

The most unfortunate part of all of this, is that they did not hear from the people who were overjoyed by hearing the athan. They did not hear from the people who it most deeply affected. So as a muslim resident of Culver City, I would like to say thank you.

Thank you to all of the people who allowed for us to hear the athan. Thank you to everyone who came out to hear it. Thank you for your kindness and patience. And thank you for being there for the muslim community at a time when we were vulnerable.