(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The first day of Ramadan will be Friday, and Thursday night, the first prayers begin.
But this year, because of COVID-19, mosques are making very different arrangements, WBBM Newsradio’s Steve Miller reports.
When Friday night prayers were stopped at the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview about a month ago, Mosque President Oussama Jammal says it was as if they’d entered a strange new life.
Now, the month of Ramadan is about to begin. Thousands are usually at the mosque for prayer every night to break the fast and socialize, but Jammal says those prayers will have to be in each individual home. And the mosque will be empty.
“There is a sense of heartbreak for people,” he said.
Jammal says when things are slowly allowed to reopen, decisions must be made about prayer: how to distance people who are used to praying shoulder-to-shoulder.