The crescent moon was sighted on the evening of March 19 over Mecca, and by midnight the messages had already begun moving. From palace communications offices and city hall press rooms, from foreign ministries and mosque podiums, the words went out in Arabic and English and Turkish and Urdu: Eid Mubarak. Blessed festival. The month is over.
Ramadan began on February 19 this year. Nine days later, on February 28, US and Israeli forces launched strikes on Iranian territory that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and set off a significant military escalation across the Middle East. For the remaining three weeks of the holy month, more than a billion Muslims around the world fasted through the day and followed the news through the night. The war and the fast ran together, in parallel, neither pausing for the other.
