Susan Slyomovics, in her “New York City’s Muslim World Day Parade”, offers an interesting commentary on Islam. She explains that, especially during the Muslim World Day Parade, Islam becomes more than simply a religion. It is “perceived by New Yorkers as yet another manifestation of ethnic pride” (159), and such an impression may in fact be encouraged by parade organizers who resisted Slyomovics’ attempt while researching to classify participants by ethnicity. The fact that the Muslim World Day Parade is the only specifically religious procession, of which I was unaware before reading this article, in New York also may help reinforce this impression.
Beyond this idea, Slyomovics also provided very interesting information assigned parade routes and their correlation to ethnic power in the community. I have marched for years in the Salute For Israel Parade, which runs down Fifth Avenue, but it never occurred to me that by inhabiting this “coveted venue” we were actually asserting a certain dominance. This was fascinating to me and definitely something I will be more aware of in the future.
I have never personally experienced the Muslim World Day Parade, but I was entranced by the description of the prayer services held on Lexington Avenue before the procession officially begins. The idea of New York City as a “transient sacred location” is a beautiful image and something which resonates strongly with me. New York City is characterized by speed, by noise, by skyscrapers and quick paced pitter-patters through rain and shine. For the moments before the Muslim World Day Parade, though, the City takes on new spiritual meaning and for a moment in time, part of the Manhattan slows and stops in reverence.
The final point from this article which I found to be particularly interesting and amusing that ethnic groups, despite having similar or the same icons and floats, refuse to share such parade items and split the high cost of the storage due to New York pride and stubbornness.
