Several Muslim Minneapolis City Council members say they’re disappointed that the city attorney has put the brakes on their plan to hold an iftar Friday in a city building using city funds.
An iftar is the meal eaten by Muslims at sunset to break fast during Ramadan.
Council Vice President Aisha Chughtai and Aurin Chowdhury, Jamal Osman and Jeremiah Ellison — the council’s four Muslim members — had planned to host the iftar in the Public Service Building in downtown Minneapolis.
In a letter to the more than 100 people who had signed up to attend the meal, Chughtai, Chowdhury and Osman called the event an “interfaith gathering.”
They said they were “profoundly disappointed” after City Attorney Kristyn Anderson and City Operations Officer Margaret Anderson Kelliher told them this week that they were not allowed to host the meal in a city-owned building or use city resources to pay for it.
City spokeswoman Jess Olstad said in a statement Thursday that the city celebrates the diversity of its elected officials, staff members and residents, but it must comply with separation of church requirements in the state and U.S. constitutions.
“This means that the city can’t sponsor a religious event with city funds and use a city space that is not open to the general public for a religious event,” Olstad said.
“This prohibition applies regardless of religion — whether this was an iftar, Seder or a Lenten fish fry, the advice would have been the same: City resources can’t be used for religious events."