Ramadan

As the Muslim holy month of Ramadan approaches, mosques across Istanbul are gearing up for the spiritual occasion by adorning their minarets with illuminated messages known as mahyas, a tradition dating back centuries.

Mediator Qatar expressed hopes Tuesday that a new truce between Israel and Hamas could be secured within days, after U.S. President Joe Biden said a ceasefire could start next week and last through Ramadan.

As a dire humanitarian crisis unfolds in Gaza, the U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA and the United States appealed for aid to be allowed into the war-battered Palestinian territory.

Israel has threatened to invade Gaza's Rafah by the start of Ramadan if Hamas does not return the remaining hostages by then, despite international pressure to protect Palestinian civilians sheltering in the southern city.

Amin Aaser remembers as a child growing up in Minnesota that his Muslim faith often made him feel like an outsider, and being required to follow its practices and tenets "sometimes felt like going to the dentist."

With flowing kaftans, fluid separates and glamorous maxi dresses, Western luxury fashion brands are increasingly targeting the monied Middle Eastern market with Ramadan capsule collections.

The Sarajevo Cantonal Assembly, one of ten cantons in Bosnia's mainly Bosniak and Croat-dominated Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity, has voted to shorten school classes in the Muslim Ramadan to give extra time to observant pupils and teachers to break the religious fast. 

The meals are intended for "Iftar" suppers, eaten at the end of the day-long fast in Ramadan, when Muslims abstain from food and water from sunrise until sundown for one month. 

"The meals are intended for Iftar, but will be provided for [all] people, no matter their religious or national identity," Saliha Roksa, spokeswoman of Pomozi.ba, told BIRN. 

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan began at sundown on March 22, as the faithful prepared for a month of dawn-to-dusk fasting intended to bring them closer to God and to remind them of the suffering of those less fortunate.

Türkiye expressed "deep concern" on March 22 over the escalating tension in Jerusalem and the West Bank ahead of Ramadan.

The head of an umbrella organization of restaurants has called on all eating houses to freeze prices until Ramadan, pointing out the "recent decline in many input prices."