Not your everyday breaking of bread

On the face of it, it's no big deal: A group of students from Duke University will gather Monday after classes for a discussion and a meal.

Except that this type of gathering has never been tried before.

The event, billed as a "Jewish Iftar," brings together Muslim and Jewish students at Duke for a "break-fast" meal during the holiest month of the Muslim year -- Ramadan.

The Muslim students -- around 60 are expected -- will have been fasting all day, as they have since Sept. 1, when Ramadan began. The Jewish students -- about 30 are expected -- will be on their home turf, the Freeman Center for Jewish Life, which includes a full-service cafeteria.

From 6 to 7:30 p.m., the Muslim students will talk about their faith within the context of Ramadan, the monthlong dawn-to-dusk fast that is one of the pillars of the faith. Then they'll break up in groups and talk about ways the two groups can work together on mutual projects.

"Any Jewish-Muslim cooperation sounds like an oxymoron," said Abdullah Antepli, Duke's first Muslim chaplain, hired this summer to attend to the needs of the university's estimated 400 Muslim students and faculty.

And that's a big reason Antepli would like to see more of it.

"It's wise for the Muslim community to engage with the Jewish community and to give it a priority," he said.

Antepli's vision of interfaith cooperation is not unique to this time of year. Ramadan is typically a time when Muslims reach out to their non-Muslim neighbors to share food and fellowship.

In Cary on Wednesday, a group of Turkish Muslims shared the iftar meal with 52 members of Raleigh's White Memorial Presbyterian Church. Over rice and a special kind of meatballs, the two groups talked about Turkish culture and Muslim-Christian traditions at the Divan Cultural Center on Maynard Road.

Iftar meals have become so popular, the Council on American-Islamic Relations has put out a guide for Muslims who would like to host such meals with the wider community. The guide, a kind of "how to," walks Muslims through the process -- from forming a committee, to sending out invitations to mailing thank-you notes.

"Everybody enjoys a good meal," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group. "It's an opportunity to reach out in a positive way."

President George Bush has held iftar meals in the White House since 2001. Before that, Bill and Hillary Clinton hosted parties celebrating Eid al-Fitr, the feast marking the end of Ramadan.

In past years, the Islamic Center of Raleigh has held iftars open to the public.

In countries with large Muslim populations, it is customary to invite extended family and friends to share the evening meal -- sometimes even pulling in people off the street.

The tradition stems from the role of Ramadan as a communal event, which also encourages introspection and a closer relationship with God. It builds solidarity within the Muslim community and a common sense of purpose.

"It's like us inviting someone to a seder," said Rabbi Michael Goldman of Duke, referring to the spring holiday in which Jews hold a feast to mark the deliverance from slavery. Many Jews invite non-Jews to share the ritual meal.

Goldman said he was excited by the prospect of Jewish and Muslim students cooperating on a larger project at Duke.

Although nothing has been agreed upon, Antepli, the Muslim chaplain, said he would like to see the two groups preparing a meal for the homeless, as Muslim students do each Saturday at Ar-Razzaq, a Durham mosque.

He has bigger visions, too. He can see Muslims and Jews going abroad for a summer, to Turkey or Jordan, to teach English to disadvantaged children or Iraqi orphans.

"We want to bring the hundreds of years of successful coexistence back and rebuild burned bridges," he said.

Mohamed Bashir, a senior in biomedical engineering at Duke and one of the people planning Monday's iftar, said he hasn't heard any opposition to the idea among students belonging to the Muslim Student Association.

Bashir, who went to Israel last year as part of an interfaith delegation from Duke, said he has always found that the best way to learn about other people is to befriend them.

He said it was unfortunate that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has so embittered relations between the groups.

"I've always felt that shouldn't be a religious issue," he said. "Trying to tie that conflict with religion is a misunderstanding."