Is Ramadan becoming a business?
We discuss whether the spirit of Ramadan has been lost in excessive consumption and commercialism.
For more than a billion Muslims around the world, the holy month of Ramadan is a period of spiritual reflection and prayer when they do not eat or drink from dawn to dusk.
They are also expected to do charitable work to help the less fortunate during that time. The Islamic world believes Ramadan is the month when the Quran was first revealed by God to Prophet Muhammed.
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But many say the festival is being relentlessly commercialised and is losing its traditional beliefs of sacrifice, restraint and charity.
On Thursday’s Riz Khan we ask: How much is excessive commercialism destroying the spirit of Ramadan?
Joining the show will be Chicago-based Muslim comic Azhar Usman, the co-founder of the popular standup show: Allah Made Me Funny – The Official Muslim Comedy Tour; and Vali Nasr, a professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University in the US.
You can join the conversation. Call in with your questions and comments on Thursday, September 2, at our live time of 1630GMT. Repeats air at 2130GMT, and the next day at 0230GMT and 1130GMT.