Muslims in Lebanon welcome Ramadan with mix of joy and deep concern
Muslims around the world are welcoming the arrival of Ramadan, a month of dawn-to-dusk fasting, intense prayer, charity and feasts that begins for many Sunday night.
In Lebanon, Sunnis began fasting Monday after officials in Saudi Arabia saw the crescent moon on Sunday night, while some Lebanese Shiites began fasting Monday and others Tuesday.
But as they savor the traditions of their own diverse communities — from holiday treats to evening diversions — the tribulations faced by fellow Muslims are never far from anyone's mind. This year, war and starvation in the Gaza Strip casts an especially dark shadow on the festivities.
Still, even Muslims who are struggling economically or otherwise look forward to what are widely seen as the true blessings of the holy month — prayer and reflection, nurtured by the daylong fast, and time spent with loved ones.
Muslims liven up their iftar spreads with their own local delicacies. In Lebanon, sidewalk vendors make qatayef — tiny pancakes stuffed with cream and nuts and drizzled with syrup.
This year, it will be harder to come by, as the country grapples with soaring food prices and many are struggling to buy food as inflation remains high.
- Egypt -
In Cairo, the streets are decked with colorful Ramadan lanterns, bakeries are hawking holiday sweets and television networks are promoting prime-time soap operas, hoping to capitalize on nightly food comas.
"Ramadan is a month of prayer, but also of desserts," one man quipped as he waited in line outside a bakery displaying trays of holiday sweets, including baclava, qatayef and kunafa — a syrupy delight made with shredded pastry and topped with crumbled pistachios.
But here too, beneath the normal holiday veneer, many are struggling. The government floated its currency last week as part of an emergency bailout from the International Monetary Fund, causing prices to skyrocket.
One out of every three people in Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country, was already living in poverty, and in recent years even the middle class have struggled to make ends meet.
"The situation has been very difficult," said Abdel-Kareem Salah, a civil servant and father of four, as he shopped for groceries ahead of Ramadan in the working class neighborhood around the famed Sayeda Zaynab mosque, where the alleys are strung with lights and lanterns.
"We just purchase the necessities," he said. "For us, and many like us, meat has become a luxury."
- Sense of guilt -
Sonia Uddin, a second-generation Pakistani-American living in Orange County, California, said that her family sometimes enjoys hamburgers for iftar and coffee and donuts for suhoor, the pre-dawn meal right before the daily fast begins.
She strives to maintain the traditions of her immigrant parents, but said that her 14-year-old son "is really more Western than Eastern," and insists on American-style food as they observe the holy month half a world away from the cradle of their faith.
She looks forward to attending nightly prayers, drinking tea with friends and catching up with people she hasn't seen for the past year.
But for her and many other Muslim Americans, those joyful moments will be shadowed by concern for Gaza, where a five-month Israeli offensive has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, driven most of the population from their homes and pushed hundreds of thousands to the brink of famine.
"Ramadan has typically been a time when I've turned away from the outside world and focused on my connection with God," Uddin said. "But this year, turning off is not an option for me. I need to continue my activism so those who have no voice can be heard."
Source: Associated Press
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