Holy month begins for world’s Muslims, violently for some
Besides conflicts, Ramadan shoppers feel the pinch of rising food prices
populous Arab state’s Coptic Christian minority community prompted retaliatory airstrikes on terrorists in neighboring Libya and an outpouring of condemnation.
“With a broken heart and tears in my eyes but after all I wish all my friends a great Happy Ramadan and may God accept all your prayers and fasting for the good of our beloved Egypt,” Nabil Hakim, an Egyptian Copt who lives in the US, posted on Facebook.
Libya has been gripped by chaos since the overthrow and killing of longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, with rival governments and militias vying for power and terrorists taking advantage of the mayhem.
On Friday, forces loyal to the UN-backed unity government battled rival militias in the capital Tripoli.
The Health Ministry gave a provisional toll of 28 dead and more than 100 wounded, while loyalist forces said 52 of their fighters had been killed in the battles that rocked residential areas.
“This is their gift to the people for the month of Ramadan,” a Government of National Accord statement said.
Residents of west Mosul in northern Iraq also did not expect a peaceful Ramadan, far from it as Iraqi forces pressed a broad assault on areas still held by Daesh.
Earlier this week, the military said it had dropped “hundreds of thousands of leaflets” on Daeshheld areas of Mosul, urging “citizens to exit via safe corridors toward security forces.”
Civilians in impoverished Yemen, where Iran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels are battling government forces supported by a Saudiled coalition, are suffering.
The UN says the conflict there has killed more than 8,000 people, and has warned that 17 million Yemenis — 62 percent of the popu- lation — are unable to access food. A third of the country’s provinces are on the brink of famine, and it is also facing a cholera epidemic.
Several global leaders marked the start of Ramadan with messages urging a peaceful world.
“Islam is the religion of mercy, moderation and peaceful coexistence,” King Salman of Saudi Arabia said in a statement.
US President Donald Trump, winding up his first overseas trip in office that began in Saudi Arabia, wished Muslims a “joyful Ramadan,” and urged them to use the holy month to reject extremist violence.
In Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, police used a steamroller to crush thousands of bottles of alcohol, banned under Islam, and torched a huge stash of seized drugs in the run-up to Ramadan.
Soaring temperatures and long days are expected to test the will of those who are fasting in many countries.
Many Ramadan shoppers have complained that rising food prices meant they could not prepare lavish iftar meals as they once did, and would need to save some money to celebrate the Eid Al-Fitr festival that follows at the end of the month.