Ramadan fast: devout Muslims renew faith

Lebanese “musaharati” Mohammed Fanas wakes up observant Muslims for their overnight “suhur” meal before the day’s fast in the old city of Sidon just before dawn yesterday. Muslims in much of the Middle East began the fasting month of Ramadan

Ramadan began for most Sunni Muslims yesterday as heat waves gripped many countries and leaders hoped the holy fasting month would reinforce piety and reconciliation among communities.
Shiite Muslims hope to sight the new moon – which fixes the start of the ninth month of the lunar Islamic calendar – yesterday and start their fast the following day.
In Iraq, Ramadan got off to a bloody start when insurgents lured Iraqi soldiers into a booby-trapped house and killed eight of them in coordinated blasts.
The bloodshed came as authorities across the globe urged Muslims to be merciful during Ramadan.
The month-long fast began in Egypt, the most populous Arab nation; in Saudi Arabia, birthplace of Islam, and Indonesia, the largest Muslim nation.
Most Arab Gulf states also began observing Ramadan, as did Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and the Palestinian territories, Afghanistan, Malaysia and Singapore.
India, Pakistan and Shiite Iran were expected to follow suit today.
Saudi King Abdullah urged Muslims to seek God’s mercy during the month of fasting, prayers and alms giving which is one of the five pillars of Islam.
“The holy month inspires Muslims with the noble meanings of compassion, mercy and kindness,” he said in a joint speech with Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz, according to the official SPA news agency.
They stressed that Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s holiest shrines in Mecca and Medina, must protect Islam and encourage dialogue with other religions and cultures in order to build “a civilised and coherent world.”
Calls for tolerance also emerged in France, where a recent vote to ban face-covering veils has been blasted by Muslims in several parts of the world.
Mohammed Moussaoui, the head of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, urged in a Ramadan message a “serene dialogue between Islam in France and the entire French community.”
And in a message to Moussaoui, Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux hoped that Ramadan would be a month for “reconciliation.”
Muslims observe Ramadan by abstaining from food, drink and sex from dawn until sunset. Pregnant and menstruating women, the sick, travellers and prepubescent children are exempt from the fast.
Ramadan will begin amid scorching temperatures in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Egypt, whose 80 million people are mostly Muslim, has switched to winter time, moving the clock back by an hour in order to shorten the period of fasting – a decision emulated in the Palestinian territories.
Cairo’s government daily Al-Gomhuriya said this year’s Ramadan is “the most difficult in years” due to rising prices, power shortages and temperatures of 42 degrees Celsius (108 Farenheit).
In the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip residents welcomed Ramadan with a measure of optimism as Israel’s decision to ease a four-year blockade meant they could find a wider range of goods at lower prices.
Ramadan is also a month of charity and in Jordan King Abdullah and Queen Rania announced they will provide aid to orphan students to cover tuition fees and other expenses.
Meanwhile, Indonesia said it will crack down on Internet pornography.
Quoting a poem, Communications Minister Tifatul Sembiring urged Muslims to “keep hearts clean in the holy month,” and said he would target websites and media that carried sexual content.
In the United Arab Emirates non-Muslims were warned against eating or drinking in public – a call that also echoed in neighbouring Shiite Iran where Ramadan starts today.
“Violating the virtues of the fasting month is offending to Muslims and is a criminal act punishable by the law,” Colonel Mohammad Nasser al-Razooqi of the Dubai police was quoted as saying by Gulf News daily.
Many embassies posted messages on their websites reminding expatriates to respect Ramadan rules.
In Iran, authorities said thousands of prisoners will be given a short leave during Ramadan but it was unclear if political prisoners jailed over the June 2009 post-election unrest will be among them.
In the Philippines, President Benigno Aquino said he hoped Ramadan would see social reconciliation in a heavily Roman Catholic country beset by profound poverty and a deadly separatist Muslim insurgency.
Across the Middle East, offices were opening later than usual and closing earlier to allow people to get home on time for the iftar meal that breaks the fast. A second meal, the suhur, is taken just before daybreak.
Iftar is often a lavish spread that brings together extended families and can represent a financial burden for low-income families, many countries adopt measures to stabilise prices.
In Syria government-run cooperatives have lowered the cost of basic food items like cooking oil, meat, fish and mineral water between 10 and 30 percent.

AFP