NEWS
By Jeffrey Fleishman | October 3, 2008
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.
NEWS
By Borzou Daragahi | October 24, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A militia chief's brother, kidnapped last week in an act of vengeance that sparked a two-day battle over control of a southern Iraq city, was found dead yesterday amid signs of simmering unrest between rival Shiite Muslim groups that is undermining security in the relatively stable south. At least 50 other Iraqis were killed or found dead around the country yesterday as part of a relentless wave of political violence that has marked the just-ending Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
NEWS
By Borzou Daragahi | October 23, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Gunmen bombed and shot families shopping for food and gifts, executed dozens in sectarian killings and ambushed a group of Iraqi police recruits yesterday during the closing hours of Ramadan. The violence left scores of Iraqis dead and further marred the Muslim holy month, which has been a time of incessant violence against Iraqis and American troops. The military announced yesterday that five U.S. troops had been killed in four combat incidents around Iraq, bringing the number of Americans killed over the weekend to 10. At least 83 U.S. troops were killed in the first 22 days of October, making the month the deadliest for Americans in Iraq since November 2005.
NEWS
By Ashraf Khalil | October 21, 2006
LOS ANGELES -- As the sun slowly descended toward the Pacific Ocean, Amin Momand watched it, and his teammates watched him watching it. It was an October team dinner the night before a Palos Verdes High School football game. But Momand, a starting defensive end for the Sea Kings and a Muslim, couldn't eat - couldn't even sip water - until the sun disappeared, according to the rules of Ramadan. When darkness finally came and he took a drink, there was a communal sigh of relief. Some teammates applauded.
NEWS
September 27, 2006
Since two major religious observances for Islam and Judaism coincide this year, the Jewish Student Union at Howard Community College played host for a joint Ramadan/Rosh Hashanah event.
NEWS
By Raheem Salman and Doug Smith | September 24, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A bomb exploded yesterday in an alleyway of a vast Shiite slum where women and children had gathered to collect fuel rations on the eve of the holy month of Ramadan, peppering victims with ball bearings and engulfing them in an inferno that killed at least 35. Rescuers entering the alley, which is squeezed between two walls, wrapped themselves in wet blankets as they attempted to reach victims whose clothes had been set ablaze. "We were choosing those who we thought were still alive to carry them out," said Hassan Moosawi, 26, one of the rescuers.
NEWS
By Liz F. Kay | September 22, 2006
.. For Sam Chester, a Jewish student at the Johns Hopkins University, the holiest time of his spiritual year begins tonight at sundown. His Muslim classmate, Nadia Khan, will also start observing the most important season of her faith this weekend. Because Judaism and Islam both rely on a lunar calendar, approximately every three decades the month of Ramadan coincides with the Jewish month of Tishri, which includes the high holy days of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. For Muslim and Jewish groups on college campuses and elsewhere across the nation, the overlap offers an opportunity this year to learn about each other's faith practices and similarities, particularly important given the tensions from Iran to Lebanon to the Vatican.
NEWS
By John Murphy | September 4, 2006
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- When Israel evacuated its settlements in the Gaza Strip one year ago, Ayed Abu Ramadan dreamed that Gaza's new independence would fuel an economic revival. Abu Ramadan led a Palestinian project that used greenhouses left by departing Jewish settlers to grow cherry tomatoes, strawberries and peppers for export to European markets. The government project, which employed more than 4,000 Palestinians, was expected to inject $20 million into Gaza's battered economy.
NEWS
November 4, 2005
As the Dar al-Taqwa mosque nears completion in Ellicott City, Muslims in Howard County are looking forward to having a place of their own to practice their faith. Until now, about 350 Muslim families in the county have been using a combination of public and private spaces for prayer, education and fellowship. Ramadan prayer services attract so many worshippers that they spill into the halls in Owen Brown Interfaith Center. Evening meals, which break the fast after sundown, are served in a school cafeteria.
NEWS
By MATTHEW HAY BROWN | October 18, 2005
The call to prayer echoed through the packed room. While River Hill High School senior Khalid Shourbaji sang in Arabic, Sayeed Hassan translated. "Allahu akbar," repeated Hassan, president of the Dar al-Taqwa mosque, for the public school administrators at his table. "God is the greatest. Ash-hadu an la ilaha illa'llah. I bear witness that there is no god but God." The sun had fallen over Columbia, and members of the local Muslim community were settling down to iftar, the meal that breaks the daylight fast during the month of Ramadan.