Ramadan

CAIRO -- The Middle East is jittery as it heads into Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting and spiritual introspection that has become a time of increased attacks by suicide bombers who believe they receive extra blessings. From Iraq to Lebanon to the Sinai, the month of prayer and after-dark feasting is now a month of heightened security. Egyptian police planned increased watchfulness throughout the month, while insisting no specific threats had been received. But Israel warned its citizens to stay away from Egypt's beach resorts in the Sinai peninsula, calling the threat of attacks...

BEIRUT - Thousands of Syrians took to the streets yesterday after prayers marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, defying a broad deployment of security forces across Syria that has made August one of the bloodiest months of the uprising. Activists said that at least seven people were killed in southern and central Syria when troops loyal to the government of President Bashar Assad opened fire on worshipers emerging from mosques. The popular uprising in Syria, which started in mid-March, is the most serious challenge to Assad's rule that he has faced.

As the son of a goat, sheep, and cow herder in the tiny northeastern Turkish village of Rize (REE-za), Osman Kiranoglu grew up making and eating lots of yogurt. Today, Kiranoglu parlays his fluency in yogurt as the chef-owner of the Boston Kebab House in Liberty Square. Kiranoglu counts on his experience again during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which began Monday, when observant Muslims abstain from food and drink from dawn to dusk to remember the hardships of the poor. "This year, it's going to be very difficult," Kiranoglu says.

A man was shot dead and two others are injured after a shooting outside a Copenhagen mosque following prayers to mark the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan on Tuesday, police said. Police spokesman Lau Thygesen said the shooting took place outside the Muslim Culture Institute, located in the Danish capital's western Vesterbro district, and that the roads surrounding the mosque and a nearby car park have been cordoned off. "After the prayer, there apparently was some kind of quarrel between two groups.

MELBOURNE, Fla. -- A mosque was hit by gunfire as members inside celebrated the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, authorities said yesterday. No injuries were reported and there were no arrests. A member of the Islamic Society of Brevard County stepped outside the mosque Friday night to use his cellphone when he heard several gun shots, police said. The man, who was not immediately identified, took cover behind a wall as several rounds struck the building, police said.

President Barack Obama is hosting an Iftar dinner Wednesday evening to celebrate the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The Iftar is the dinner that breaks the holiday's daily fast. The dinner became an annual White House tradition under President Bill Clinton and was continued by President George W. Bush. The White House says invited guests include religious and grass-roots leaders in the Muslim-American community as well as leaders of other faiths and elected officials. Earlier, the president has separate meetings with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Treasury...

ZANZIBAR, Tanzania - Last year, Maryam Juma marked the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in style. She spent $40 on a goat, roasted it to perfection and invited 10 relatives to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the festival at the end of Ramadan. And she bought new clothes for each of her three children. But this year, the skyrocketing price of food and other goods has forced her to cut back on the celebration - a story being played out across much of the Muslim world. "I had to think carefully about who to invite this year, just a small group of family," Juma said in Zanzibar,...

As the call to prayer echoed through the lobby and prayer rooms, men, women, and children slipped off their shoes and knelt on small rugs. They were observing Ramadan as they do every year: with prayer and fasting. But the world had changed profoundly since they last celebrated the Muslim holy month. "We are trying to purify our souls, trying to achieve piety," Imam Hussein Dayib told the faithful at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center in Roxbury, women upstairs, men below.

Saudi Arabia has announced that the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, characterized by dawn-to-dusk fasting and heightened piety, has ended. The decision was made after sunset Monday when the new moon was spotted. Muslims follow a lunar calendar. Saudi Arabia said the three-day Eid al-Fitr holiday that marks the end of Ramadan would begin Tuesday. Saudi Arabia is home to the main Muslim holy sites. Egypt and several other Arab countries said they, too, will observe Eid al-Fitr starting Tuesday.

Philippine officials say the military will continue to hunt for Abu Sayyaf militants who killed seven marines last week but they will take care not to disrupt the observance of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Regional military commander Lt. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer says troops will focus their manhunt and assaults on militants away from Muslim communities observing Monday's start of Ramadan. The marines were killed Thursday in a clash in southern Sulu province. Two of the marines were beheaded.

Saudi Arabia has announced that the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, characterized by dawn-to-dusk fasting and heightened piety, has ended. The decision was made after sunset Monday when the new moon was spotted. Muslims follow a lunar calendar. Saudi Arabia said the three-day Eid al-Fitr holiday that marks the end of Ramadan would begin Tuesday. Saudi Arabia is home to the main Muslim holy sites. Egypt and several other Arab countries said they, too, will observe Eid al-Fitr starting Tuesday.

SALEM, N.H. - For something only about two inches long, the highly nutritious date has endless possibilities in the kitchen: ground into sugar, pressed into paste, processed into nonalcoholic drinks, and eaten out of hand. Dates are almost always the nibble of choice to break the fast during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which began earlier this month, when Muslims abstain from food and drink from dawn to sunset. Breaking the Ramadan fast with dates is a tradition that goes back over a century.

President Barack Obama is hosting an Iftar dinner Wednesday evening to celebrate the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The Iftar is the dinner that breaks the holiday's daily fast. The dinner became an annual White House tradition under President Bill Clinton and was continued by President George W. Bush. The White House says invited guests include religious and grass-roots leaders in the Muslim-American community as well as leaders of other faiths and elected officials. Earlier, the president has separate meetings with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham...

As the call to prayer echoed through the lobby and prayer rooms, men, women, and children slipped off their shoes and knelt on small rugs. They were observing Ramadan as they do every year: with prayer and fasting. But the world had changed profoundly since they last celebrated the Muslim holy month. "We are trying to purify our souls, trying to achieve piety," Imam Hussein Dayib told the faithful at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center in Roxbury, women upstairs, men below.

A Malaysian television station axed a series of commercials to mark the Muslim month of Ramadan after angry viewers complained the ads insulted non-Muslim ethnic minorities. The three commercials began airing recently to remind viewers of Ramadan, which began Aug. 1. Ethnic Malay Muslims, who make up nearly two-thirds of Malaysia's 28 million people, refrain from eating and drinking from dawn until sundown during the month. A 30-second clip depicted an ethnic Chinese girl eating while Muslims watching her, another showed her wearing a sleeveless...

BEIRUT - Columns of Syrian tanks descended on Hama yesterday in what besieged residents feared would be an escalation of a three-day assault on a city at the heart of the Syrian uprising. The offensive, which has killed at least 80 people in Hama since Sunday, according to rights groups, drew international outrage and spurred a long-stalled effort at the United Nations to condemn Syria's attacks against civilians. In Washington, meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with Syrian activists to "express our solidarity with the Syrian people," said State Department...

Religious authorities in most of the Middle East declared that Monday will be the start of the holy month of Ramadan, a period devoted to dawn-to-dusk fasting, prayers and spiritual introspection. Ramadan begins around 11 days earlier each year. Its start is calculated based on the sighting of the new moon, which marks the beginning of the Muslim lunar month that varies between 29 or 30 days. Official statements issued Saturday in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and Yemen said the holy month will start Monday.

BEIRUT - Thousands of Syrians took to the streets yesterday after prayers marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, defying a broad deployment of security forces across Syria that has made August one of the bloodiest months of the uprising. Activists said that at least seven people were killed in southern and central Syria when troops loyal to the government of President Bashar Assad opened fire on worshipers emerging from mosques. The popular uprising in Syria, which started in mid-March, is the most serious challenge to Assad's rule that he has faced.

As the son of a goat, sheep, and cow herder in the tiny northeastern Turkish village of Rize (REE-za), Osman Kiranoglu grew up making and eating lots of yogurt. Today, Kiranoglu parlays his fluency in yogurt as the chef-owner of the Boston Kebab House in Liberty Square. Kiranoglu counts on his experience again during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which began Monday, when observant Muslims abstain from food and drink from dawn to dusk to remember the hardships of the poor. "This year, it's going to be very difficult," Kiranoglu says.

Philippine officials say the military will continue to hunt for Abu Sayyaf militants who killed seven marines last week but they will take care not to disrupt the observance of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Regional military commander Lt. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer says troops will focus their manhunt and assaults on militants away from Muslim communities observing Monday's start of Ramadan. The marines were killed Thursday in a clash in southern Sulu province. Two of the marines were beheaded.