Ramadan

At a Westview mosque called Masjid-al-Rahmah, it's not just the adults who are fasting this month for Ramadan, but many of the 83 children attending the adjacent school.Muslim adults must fast during daylight all month to receive forgiveness and blessings from Allah. The children at the private, Muslim Al-Rahmah School school next door fast voluntarily.Ramadan, which falls this year in February, marks the revelation of Islam's holy book, the Koran, to the Prophet Mohammed -- a process that began in 610 and took 23 years.

AMMAN, Jordan -- The Middle East has been a little crazier for the past several weeks -- apart from the normal violence.Muslims have been observing Ramadan, the holiest of Islamic months, a time when the devout fast from daybreak until sunset. The fast includes abstinence from food, water and cigarettes: all staples of nearly every daily function in the Arab world."You see the people start to get nervous as the day goes," said Ahmed, an observer of the passing parade from his shoeshine stand in downtown Amman.

When Muzaffar Shaikh celebrated his first Ramadan in America two decades ago, it was a test of faith. Ramadan is the holy month when Muslims fast from dawn until sundown every day. Shaikh, who had arrived from Pakistan, studied most of the day, then worked a nine-hour shift managing a Manhattan candy store. Despite his hunger pangs, he said, he never ate the Milky Ways or Almond Joy bars an arm's length away. "It was a very tough time, recalled Shaikh, 42, who works as a technology consultant in Windsor Mill.

When Muzaffar Shaikh celebrated his first Ramadan in America two decades ago, it was a test of faith. Ramadan is the holy month when Muslims fast from dawn until sundown every day. Shaikh, who had arrived from Pakistan, studied most of the day, then worked a nine-hour shift managing a Manhattan candy store. Despite his hunger pangs, he said, he never ate the Milky Ways or Almond Joy bars an arm's length away. It was a very tough time, recalled Shaikh, 42, who works as a technology consultant in Windsor Mill.

For many Baltimoreans, Imam Mohamad Bashar Arafat is the public face of Islam. The bearded, thoughtful Syrian native was the first Muslim leader many local political, civic and religious leaders turned to as they scrambled to fathom the intricacies of Islam after the terrorist attacks in September last year. During the past year, Arafat has been in demand, praying next to cardinals, ministers and rabbis, and speaking at dozens of mosques, churches and synagogues. His message: Islam, Judaism and Christianity share ideals of peace, love, mercy and cooperation.

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.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The holy month of Ramadan arrived on the wings of the crescent moon over the weekend, and after more than 20 years of war, U.N. sanctions and more war under the Saddam Hussein regime, the weary Iraqi people, like Muslims everywhere, will take stock of their blessings and renew their commitment to God. For one month, the vast majority of Iraqis, along with the rest of the world's 1.2 billion Muslims, will fast from dawn to sunset and...

FALLS CHURCH, Va. - The pre-holiday bustle is already starting at places like the Halal Meat Market that sell fresh dates, the sweet fruit that Muslims traditionally eat to break the daily sunup-to-sundown fasts required during the holy month of Ramadan. But this year, Ramadan, which by the lunar calendar begins Nov. 17, will dawn under the cloud of war. With the United States vowing to continue air and ground strikes in Afghanistan if necessary even through the onset of Ramadan, American Muslims find themselves caught more than ever between the secular and the sacred, their country and their religion.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Six U.S. soldiers were reported killed in attacks in the capital and in the northern city of Mosul over a 24-hour period as anxiety mounted over a feared wave of insurgent violence during the sacred Muslim month of Ramadan, which begins this week. A pair of roadside bombs in Baghdad killed four U.S. soldiers and a car bomb attack on a convoy in Mosul killed two and injured five, the military announced yesterday. Fearing an upsurge in violence, U.S. troops and the interim Iraqi government have boosted efforts to establish control over insurgent strongholds before Ramadan.