Ramadan: iftar on Zanzibar draws thousands to stadium

Thousands took part in one of Zanzibar's largest communal Iftar meals at the island's Amani Stadium, where Muslims and non-Muslims gathered to break the fast at sunset during Ramadan.

"We have just managed to showcase to the whole world that Zanzibar is a destination of peace, unity and love," said Arif Abbas Manji, the head of the Zanzibar Commission for Tourism.

That the event drew so many people was also an intentional goal for the organisers.

"We aim to break a few records in terms of the number Iftar. The record, apart from Mecca and from Medina, the record was was at around 7000 people. So we aimed at 15,000 thousand people, to surpass it by about 100 percent", explained Arif Abbas Manji.

In Tanzania, around 37 percent of the population are Muslim. But on the island of Zanzibar, around 99 percent of the population share this faith.