Ramadan

Muslims in Harford County celebrated the end of the holy month of Ramadan with a prayer ceremony Tuesday morning at the Bel Air Reckord Armory. As more than a billion Muslims worldwide celebrated completion of the month of Ramadan, Harford's Muslims assembled at the armory on Main Street to offer traditional Eid Prayers. The Eid Prayers ceremony is a family event and is attended by men, women and children, explained Dr. Rehan Khan of Masjid Al-Falaah, Harford County's Muslim education center in Abingdon.

Muslims in Harford County celebrated the end of the holy month of Ramadan with a prayer ceremony Tuesday morning at the Bel Air Reckord Armory. As more than a billion Muslims worldwide celebrated completion of the month of Ramadan, Harford's Muslims assembled at the armory on Main Street to offer traditional Eid Prayers. The Eid Prayers ceremony is a family event and is attended by men, women and children, explained Dr. Rehan Khan of Masjid Al-Falaah, Harford County's Muslim education center in Abingdon.

On the Northwest Baltimore office door of Mubasher Ahmad, a Muslim missionary with gentle manners, are words in English and Arabic. They say, "Love for all, hatred for none."Mounted on a wall in the Baltimore County office of Dr. Bashar Pharaon, an amiable surgeon who is president of the Islamic Society of Maryland, is handsomely embroidered Arabic calligraphy. Its translation: "I believe in God."The two men, with an estimated 15,000 other Muslims in the Baltimore metropolitan area, are observing the strict, monthlong fast of Ramadan, share a fervent hope for their sometimes controversial and beleaguered faith.

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.

WE are in the midst of the holiest month for the second-largest religion in America. But you might not know it, because it goes virtually unnoticed by much of the country.Ramadan, which started at the end of December, is the Muslim commemoration of God's first revelation of the holy book, the Koran, to the Prophet Mohammed.Hate crimeThis year the observance was marred when a star and a crescent, symbols of Islam, placed near the White House to recognize Ramadan were defaced on Dec. 26, 1996, with a Nazi swastika.

CAIRO, Egypt -- Rageb Hassen was ready. His left hand held his spoon aloft, poised at mouth level. His right hand clutched the bowl of beans, preparing to raise it to the same altitude.As soon as a cannon signaled the sun had set, his spoon, bowl and mouth reached a happy convergence, ending Rageb's third day of fasting for Ramadan.The Islamic holy month began this week, starting 28 days of abstinence from food and drink between sunrise and sundown for the world's Muslims."It's not so hard," Mr. Hassen, a 20-year-old clothing vendor, said of the daily fast.

Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar used by Muslims, is the most spiritual time in Islam, and this year it arrives at an unsettled time for those in America. The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have focused American attention on Islam as never before. TV talk shows debate the meaning of jihad, and Muslim women who wear traditional garb risk hostile reactions. The hijab, or traditional scarf, has become subjected to curiosity and sometimes hostility.

Raghid Shourbaji finds it difficult to put into words. There's something about Ramadan that is just different from the rest of the year. "You feel it almost in the air everywhere," said the Clarksville man, a board member of the Howard Council Muslim Council. "Not only among Muslims -- even among non-Muslims. It's a serene and peaceful feeling that you get during this time." With the sighting of the first crescent of the new moon this evening, Muslims in Maryland and around the world will begin the observation of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and a period of fasting, prayer and good works.

An estimated 15,000 Muslims in the Baltimore area are preparing for celebrations Monday that will conclude Ramadan, the monthlong period of fasting and spiritual exercises.One of the local mosques with a schedule of observances Monday morning for men, women and children is Masjid Walter TC Omar at 3401 W. North Ave. The Eid prayer will begin there at 10 a.m. The worship will be followed by the traditional Eidel-Fitr feast, masjid spokesman Emmanuel Karim announced."Eidul-Fitr is the celebration to commemorate the completion of Ramadan and represents a personal victory of one's spirituality over one's physical and worldly desires," Mr. Karim said.

Western Maryland College's "Taste of Islam" will feature a traditional Ramadan dinner Wednesday. The program will begin at 5:30 p.m. in Englar Dining Hall. Tickets are $15 for non-WMC students, faculty or staff. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. "First, we will break the fast in the traditional manner by eating a date and drinking water," said Mohamed Esa, a professor of German and adviser of the Multicultural Student Association. During Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset.

September afternoons on the soccer field at Randallstown High can heat up quickly, and Ousmane Toure tires much more quickly than he usually does. During a break in practice, Toure eagerly pours water over his head and arms to cool off, but he will not drink any. At Oakland Mills, it's heating up, too. Fuad Suleiman, in full pads, goes all-out in hitting drills at football practice. He gradually slows down, eventually taking a knee on the sideline to catch his breath. His buddies tell him to get some water, but he does not. Toure and Suleiman won't drink anything at practice for 30 days as they observe the Ramadan fast.

Mallory Terry, who lives on a Northwest Baltimore block in Upton where half the rowhouses are vacant, wasn't expecting to see a throng of people collecting food and clothing outside the Ul-Haqq mosque when she took her two sons for a walk yesterday. After pausing briefly to ask if the bonanza was open to anyone, she collected apples, water, soda, spaghetti, corn and two bags of clothes, blankets and toiletries. Then she graciously thanked several volunteers. Terry, 23, said she isn't in dire straits, but as a mother of two young sons, she takes all the help she can get. "We need more things like this to help the community," she said, before calling out for her 4-year-old son Josiah to return to her side.

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.

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.

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.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Insurgent and sectarian attacks in the capital have shot up during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting and atonement, according to U.S. military statistics released yesterday. Since the beginning of the holiday more than two weeks ago, there have been an average of 36 violent incidents daily. That compares with about 28 a day since mid-June, when U.S. and Iraqi security forces began a high-profile security crackdown designed to stem violence between Sunni Arab and Shiite Muslims.

Western Maryland College's "Taste of Islam" will feature a traditional Ramadan dinner and a concert of Arabic music today. The program, sponsored by the Multicultural Student Association, begins at 6 p.m. with dinner in Englar Dining Hall, and concludes with a 7:30 p.m. concert featuring Palestinian star Simon Shaheen in McDaniel Lounge. Dinner tickets are $15 and concert admission is $10. A combination ticket is $20. Although the program is open to the public, seating for dinner is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

The new crescent moon on Feb. 10 marked the beginning of the Muslim observance of Ramadan.For a month, Muslims around the world abstain from food, drink, smoking and sex between dawn and sunset. An exercise of empathy and compassion, Ramadan helps people identify with the problems of the less fortunate.Refraining from all foods and liquids, including water, is a challenge to the body. The evening meal after each day of fasting should be filling, without putting a strain on the digestive system.

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.

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.