If Muslim neighbors invited you to break the Ramadan fast with their family one evening, would you join them?

The Turkish Cultural Center Pittsburgh welcomes the public to join its members and friends for dinner, having erected on the lawn of the Cathedral of Learning in Oakland a big white "Ramadan Iftar Dinner Tent."

Open to all at 8 p.m. starting last Tuesday through Sept. 4, the tent is for iftar, the breaking of the fast during Ramadan. In North America, Ramadan started at sunset on Aug. 10 and lasts for 30 days.

During daylight for that stretch, observant Muslims abstain from all food, drink and sensual pleasures (there are exceptions for children, the elderly, and the sick and the pregnant). In the evenings, however, people gather to enjoy a meal and each other's company.

The Ramadan Iftar Dinner Tent is a big tradition in Turkey, according to the TCCP, which is presenting the dinners with Pitt's Intercultural Dialogue Group. This year the food is being prepared at a new Turkish restaurant on Semple Street in Oakland, Lezzet, which translates in Turkish as "Taste."

The tent is open to up to 200 people each evening. The group set up a smaller tent last year and got many more than the 100 nightly guests it expected, so it expanded, says the TCCP's Sefa Nur. "We want to share the tradition with more people."

The dinners are free, paid for by TCCP members. As noted in the online invite at tccpittsburgh.org, "Ramadan is a time when the principles of generosity and hospitality become especially important."

Perhaps especially right now, given that the tent was erected amidst rising controversy over the "Ground Zero mosque," actually a community center planned two blocks from the World Trade Center site in New York City. The rhetoric is being fanned by what observers have called an "Islamophobia" machine, which has made some Muslims nervous and many people of various faiths angry.

On the cool grass of the Pitt campus, all was calm Tuesday, which was a beautiful evening. I showed up with my family at the tent just before 8 p.m., and we sat ourselves on folding chairs at one of the long tables.

Most in this night's crowd of 130 or so seemed to be TCCP members -- many of the women wearing colorful head scarves -- and several made us feel welcome by saying hello. Yakup Unlu and his wife, Sebnem, were especially warm as they sat down across from us. He owns R&B's Pizza on Smithfield Street, Downtown, and she's a cancer researcher.

Iman Kadir Gunduz opened with remarks on the meanings of fasting and Ramadan, "a month of caring and sharing." The food was only one aspect the group was sharing, he said. "We share happiness and joy." Another man led a call to prayer.

We followed the Unlus' lead and started by eating a date, then munched through a lovely lentil soup, rice and seasoned beef called kavurma, with salad, pita and baklava.

As Mr. Unlu explained, not only was the dessert brought over from Turkey, but so was the chef, Osman Saritas, who runs a catering company in Sivas. He promises to cook different foods for each evening's iftar.

The Unlus planned to come again -- for the food, the fellowship and, as he put it, "to meet new people. Like we met you."

Whether typically Turkish or purely Pittsburgh, the family invited us to an iftar this weekend at their home.

Looking for more from the Post-Gazette? Join PG+, our members-only web site. You'll get exclusive sports content, opinion, financial information, discounts from retailers and restaurants, and more. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.