MUSLIMS AROUND WORLD MARK EID AL-FITR
With communal prayers, sweet treats and large family gatherings, Muslims around the world are celebrating Eid al-Fitr, the feast marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan when the faithful fast from dawn to dusk.
In some countries, such as Indonesia, the festivities appeared to return to their pre-pandemic levels, after two years of muted celebrations under the shadow of COVID-19.
In others, the holiday was dampened either directly or indirectly by the war in Ukraine. The conflict has sent global food prices soaring.
Inside Ukraine, some of the country’s small yet diverse Muslim population gathered for morning prayers at the Islamic Cultural Center in the capital, Kyiv.
In an interview in the Ukrainian city of Lviv last month, Arab Muslim immigrants to Ukraine said they could not imagine leaving their adopted country.
“Where there is war, you’ll find a Palestinian, a Yemeni and a Syrian,” said Vail Albekhesi, 51, a Palestinian who has lived in Ukraine since 1989. “So here we are in Ukraine.”
Because Russia and Ukraine supply much of the world’s wheat, the war has driven up the cost of the global food staple. Wheat prices have risen in many Muslim countries as a result, including Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon and Pakistan.
Egypt last year was the biggest importer of Ukrainian wheat — and authorities have banned wheat and grain exports to soften the blow of the war’s ripple effects.
In Syria, commodity prices have skyrocketed as it grapples with sanctions and an economic downturn across the border in Lebanon.
Still, communities came together to celebrate the holiday.
At the Istiqlal Grand Mosque in Jakarta, the largest mosque in Southeast Asia, tens of thousands of people congregated for Eid prayers this year.
The crowds were a major break from the past two years when the mosque was shuttered and then closed to communal prayers.
Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim country and millions of Indonesians traveled from urban centers back to their hometowns to celebrate.