Rapid City's Muslim community, which marked the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan on Saturday, is small in size but rich in ethnic diversity, a member said.

About 70 Muslims belong to the Black Hills Islamic Association, which gathers as a small religious community for weekly prayers and regular potluck gatherings on the campus of South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, said Nuri Uzunlar, advisor of the Muslim Student Association. The gatherings typically include students and professors at Mines and their families, as well as other Muslims who live and work in the Black Hills region.

Uzunlar estimates that the majority of area Muslims hail from Saudi Arabia or another Middle Eastern country, which means Rapid City isn't reflective of Islamic demographics worldwide. Most Muslims live in Asia or Africa, and only 20 percent of Muslims worldwide live in Arab countries. By population, Indonesia is the largest Islamic country in the world. The few Indonesians who do attend the local gatherings are usually here on short-term work visas for seasonal employment, Uzunlar said.

But the list of birthplaces for local Muslims is long and is racially and culturally diverse: Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Jordan, Palestine, Malaysia, Zambia, Ethiopia and Turkey, among others. Turkey, where Uzunlar was born, is about 95 percent Muslim.

But whatever their homeland, members of the Black Hills Islamic Association share in the weekly festivity of breaking the Ramadan fast at sunset. During Ramadan, Muslims who are able abstain from food, water and smoking from daybreak to sunset. This year, Ramadan began the night of Aug. 21, making Aug. 22 the first day of fasting.

In addition to the daytime fast - undertaken to remind people what it means for the poor to be hungry and thirsty, Uzunlar said - the month is also a time for people to ask for and to extend forgiveness to others.

Muslims also give two types of charity during Ramadan. Fitr is an amount of money that would feed a family of four a dinner comparable to what the donor would eat. That money is to be given secretly to somebody.

Wealthier Muslims are supposed to give zakat - or 2.5 percent of their excess funds - to charity. "Excess funds" is defined as income above what is needed to live on for one year.

Uzunlar said the public is welcome to join the Muslim community for its regular Saturday night gatherings during Ramadan in the Surbeck Center.

President Barack Obama on Friday extended a Ramadan greeting to Muslims in America and worldwide.

"Like many people of different faiths who have known Ramadan through our communities and families, I know this to be a festive time - a time when families gather, friends host iftars, and meals are shared. But I also know that Ramadan is a time of intense devotion and reflection - a time when Muslims fast during the day and perform tarawih prayers at night, reciting and listening to the entire Koran over the course of the month," Obama said.

Contact Mary Garrigan at 394-8424 or mary.garrigan@rapidcityjournal.com