To the Faithful, holiest of months is Ramadan when by command of the prophet no Mussulman may eat from dawn to sunset. Ramadan ended last week, spectacularly in three places.
In Istanbul 20,000 people shuffled into the great Byzantine Mosque of Santa Sophia on Ramadan's "Night of Power" to hear the first reading of the Koran, not in Arabic language of Mohammed, but in vulgar Turkish. The blood of the pious curdled. Many of the gaping crowd flouted tradition by wearing shoes. Photographers added to the sacrilege by setting off flashes. Although the...
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