Mosque

JERUSALEM -- Israeli police raided the grounds of Islam's third-holiest shrine yesterday, chained the compound's gates behind them, and fired tear gas and stun grenades into a crowd of thousands of Muslim worshipers to quell a rock-throwing protest over Israeli excavation work nearby. The clash outside Al Aqsa mosque set off protests across the Muslim world and scattered violence in the West Bank. It came a day after the rival Palestinian movements Hamas and Fatah agreed to end months of factional fighting, a step that some Israeli leaders believe could lead to stepped-up attacks against the Jewish state.

Istanbul is a beautiful city and the Blue Mosque is one of its most spectacular sites. I traveled to Turkey last October and took this photo from the terrace of a textile museum. As I focused on the dome, a huge flock of seagulls filled the lens. We saw the mosque from other vantage points several more times during our trip, but never again with a bird in sight. Penney Hubbard, Baltimore

BAGHDAD -- Iraqi political leaders warned yesterday that sectarian violence is likely to increase if thousands of Shiites gather next week at the damaged Golden Mosque in Samarra. Their warnings came on a day in which at least 38 Iraqis died in bombings in the capital. Iraqi leaders have been pressuring Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to abandon plans to lead a July 5 procession to the Golden Mosque, also known as the Askariya Shrine, in the heart of the mostly Sunni Arab city of Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad.

BAGHDAD -- The managing editor of a government-run newspaper launched with U.S. funding after the fall of Saddam Hussein was found dead yesterday, the 85th Iraqi journalist to be killed since the war began. The body of Filaih Wadi Mijthab of the daily Al Sabah was found in Baghdad on the day that a four-day-old curfew imposed after the bombing of a Shiite Muslim mosque in Samarra was lifted. Five unidentified bodies were found yesterday. Mijthab was kidnapped Wednesday by gunmen who intercepted his vehicle as he drove to work.

Last October, my wife, Wendy, and I traveled to Istanbul, Turkey, in celebration of her birthday. We stayed at a wonderful boutique hotel about a block from the famed Blue Mosque. On her birthday we met friends on the rooftop terrace for appetizers and wine before going out for a celebration dinner. As the evening progressed, we had the good fortune to witness a full moon rise behind the mosque. A few of us scattered to get our cameras. I went so far as to tangle with the tripod I had carried for so long and got the shot.

NAZARETH, Israel -- Jerusalem is usually the place that dominates religious animosities in the Holy Land. But lately, Nazareth has been competing for attention in a dispute that's even aroused the Vatican.It started two years ago with the demolition of a Muslim school. Since then, the dispute between Muslims and Christians in the city where Jesus grew up has sparked outbreaks of violence and become a crisis that threatens Pope John Paul II's trip next year to the Holy Land to celebrate the year 2000.

NEW DELHI, India -- Indian national elections begin today, and, as always, they are likely to be a great, if unwieldy, display of democracy, this time requiring a month of voting and 800,000 polling locations for the 605 million people eligible to cast a ballot.But as impressive as Indian elections may be, they are becoming too much of a good thing, with this being the third vote in 40 months, a result of fragmented and sometimes treacherous politics that produce easy-to-disassemble coalition governments.

JERUSALEM -- Israel has adopted a compromise plan to resolve a violent dispute in Nazareth between Muslims and Christians. The plan would allow a small mosque to be built next to a planned plaza for millennium pilgrims.The conflict over Muslim plans to build a large mosque on the site of the plaza set off clashes for several days this month in the Israeli Arab town, which is revered by Christians as the boyhood home of Jesus. The Vatican and church leaders warned that millennial celebrations there, including an expected visit by Pope John Paul II, could be jeopardized.

RACAK, Yugoslavia -- Even as the frozen corpses of massacre victims lay waiting for burial, 40 bodies placed in rows that filled a mosque's floor, Serbian security forces attacked this village again.Yugoslav leaders ignored a world of condemnation and pleas for restraint from foreign peace monitors, and cheered as paramilitary police hit Racak with machine guns and mortar shells for several hours yesterday.In what Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe monitors called a clear cease-fire violation, Serbian security forces also sealed off several nearby villages.

Beyond the stone walls of Istanbul's majestic Blue Mosque, a musician plucks out a traditional Turkish song on his autoharp and the men in the tea garden sing.Loudly, lovingly, the men sing under the chestnut trees. One young Turk is seated on a small wooden stool, a cellular telephone cocked to his ear. An older man with a mustache leans back in his chair, closes his eyes and repeats the refrain, lost in reverie.Gul Gorgulu joins in. She, too, remembers this song of love from her childhood.

CAIRO -A bomb exploded yesterday in a bazaar near the historic Hussein mosque in Cairo, killing a French woman, wounding 18 others and raising fears that Islamic militants might be targeting Egypt's tourism industry after several years of relative quiet. The blast was small, but it reverberated through the tight alleys of the centuries-old Khan El-Khalili bazaar and sent shopkeepers, coffee shop waiters, worshipers and tourists scrambling for cover. Egyptian state-owned TV reported that a French tourist was killed and the other victims, mostly foreigners, were injured when two masked women tossed a bomb from the roof of a motel just after dusk.

KHOTAN, China - The grand mosque that draws thousands of Muslims each week in this oasis town has all the usual trappings of piety: dusty wool carpets on which to kneel in prayer, a row of turbans and skullcaps for men without headwear, a wall niche facing the holy city of Mecca in the Arabian desert. But large signs posted by the front door list edicts that are more Communist Party decrees than Quranic doctrines. The imam's sermon at Friday Prayer must run no longer than a half-hour, the rules say. Prayer in public areas outside the mosque is forbidden.

BAGHDAD - Bombs and gunfire ripped through the end of Ramadan here yesterday, killing at least 24 worshipers and Iraqi soldiers near two Shiite mosques in a worrisome reminder that the drop in violence in recent months can be shattered by successive explosions. The blasts struck in the early morning of Eid al-Fitr, the feast that ends the holy month of fasting. Fourteen people, including three soldiers, were killed and 28 injured when a sedan blew up outside a mosque in the Zafaraniya neighborhood of southeastern Baghdad.

A cold drizzle fell on Ernest Richardson as he stood in line yesterday on a West Baltimore sidewalk. The 58-year-old disabled Vietnam veteran did not seem to mind. Good things in life require sacrifice, he said, and he was waiting for some very good things: free food, blankets and toiletries at the Masjid Ul-Haqq mosque in the Upton neighborhood. "We're having a rough time financially at the moment," he said, referring to himself and his wife, Elaine, also disabled. "This is a blessing."

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A powerful suicide explosion killed at least 15 people and injured dozens of others yesterday evening, shortly after a large protest rally marking the one-year anniversary of the government forces' raid on a radical mosque. Most of the dead were police officers. The blast, which appeared to have targeted the security forces, poses a sharp new challenge to Pakistan's coalition government, which has been struggling in its efforts to formulate a policy for dealing with Islamic militants.

It is not difficult to understand why Sen. Barack Obama has a fear of scarves. In the 17 months he has been pursuing the presidency, the senator has faced a crude and shameless campaign from assorted ignoramuses to prove him a secret Muslim - a "Manchurian candidate," as one put it - trained from birth to subvert America from within and, I don't know, make us all eat falafels or something. On about a half-second of intelligent reflection, the flaw in that theory is apparent: If unfriendly forces had indeed inserted a "secret" Muslim among us, said Muslim would have blond hair, blue eyes, flag pins out the wazoo and a name like Joe Smith.

ISTANBUL, Turkey -- At 5:30 a.m., Istanbul awakens to the sound of the muezzin's call to prayer. As the monophonic tones blare over loudspeakers throughout this city of minarets and mosques, they draw the many faithful to worship. Though we are not Muslim, we stir to the sounds. We are here, in this ancient land on the Bosporus, in a hotel, on a one-day stay before embarking on a Mediterranean cruise. The rhythm and pitch of the muezzin's call is exotic and alien to our Western ears and serve as potent reminder that Istanbul is a strange land rich in religion and history and, for a Westerner, even in mystery.

This photo of the interior of Hagia Sophia was taken in Istanbul, Turkey, last June. Originally a Byzantine church, then a mosque, now a museum, Hagia Sophia is an extraordinary edifice, which, even under reconstruction with scaffolding and netting, gives one a sense of otherworldliness. The stairs and light make you feel like you are being transported to heaven. Dr. David S. Zee Baltimore The Sun welcomes submissions for "My Best Shot." Photos should be accompanied by a description of when and where you took the picture and your name, address and phone number.

If a group of Baltimore pastors and ministers has anything to do with it, the lessons of racial harmony and nonviolent resistance propagated by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. won't soon be forgotten. In honor of the 40th anniversary of King's assassination in 1968, the clergy members announced yesterday their plan to hold a 40-day "campaign for peace," starting Feb. 25, that is to include prayer vigils, consecrations of sites where violent crimes occurred and a commemorative march in Baltimore on April 4, the date of King's death.

WALKERSVILLE -- The Board of Zoning Appeals of this Frederick County town turned down last night a request by a Muslim group to put a mosque and retreat center on 224 acres of farmland. Though the request has raised issues of religious freedom and tolerance, the board mentioned much more mundane reasons -- problems with traffic and water and the details of the town's master plan and wording of its zoning regulations. The decision came on the third night of the board's public deliberation on the second floor of Walkerville's Town Hall, an event that attracted about 100 residents each night.