In extraordinary times, Ramadan finds a place in Animal Crossing

I asked to join one of Ismail's Suhoor sessions and when I arrived I was prompted by the island's owner to join voice chat. I entered mid-conversation to hear other Muslims in different parts of the world criticizing the game's localization of Sahara, a desert camel who visits players to sell them rugs and speaks in broken English. Players brought food -- their own islands' native fruits -- to eat alongside Ismail's real-life meal in his Western European time zone. Some of the visitors removed their shoes from their characters' feet and placed them on a tarp near the entrance before walking to the table. Ismail mentioned to me beforehand that people sometimes brought gifts, so I grabbed something from my house's storage upon receiving the invite and dropped it on the ground somewhere it could be found later.