Unemployed father, son, 3, among needy fed in Plainfield, thanks to Islamic nonprofit

The cold, rainy, wind-swept walk through the city's downtown proved to be well worth the trip.

Bastidas, a native of Ecuador, said that he has been looking for work lately, but with no success. Making ends meet in order to afford living in a small East Front Street apartment is difficult, he said, but his family, which also includes a wife and daughter, was looking forward to a hot meal, he added.

"It's dinner," he said, glancing at the bag with a broad smile.

Plainfield's Center for Islamic Enlightenment on North Avenue was one of nine locations statewide at which representatives with the Islamic Circle of North America hoped to distribute a total of 5,000 pounds of meat to needy families Wednesday. As local volunteers explained, the giveaway had both religious and social significance, being timed to coincide with the recent Islamic holiday of Ed-ul-Adha and also intended to provide assistance for many of the state's families most in desperate need of a hot meal.

Ed-ul-Adha commemorates the willingness of Abraham, the religious figure who appears in holy books in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God. According to scripture, Abraham's hand was stayed by an angel as he was about to perform the sacrifice, and the father and son instead sacrificed a ram — Muslim families worldwide traditionally give symbolic gifts of meat to the less fortunate each year during the three-day celebration.

"Very many people are jobless today, and it is our duty that we should help others," said Shamim Pervez, a South Brunswick resident and a native of Pakistan who helped organize the Plainfield giveaway. "In Islam, personal life is very simple — and if you're rich, you give to others."

Martha Y. Janajri, a resident of Warren and a native of Ecuador who also volunteered Wednesday, said she hoped the day would help people better understand a religion she said many often get the "wrong idea about because of people who are extremists."

Wednesday, she said, displayed "real Islam."

"We just want to share what that is," she said, just before flagging down a man riding a bike to hand him a bag of meat.