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.Now, on the morning of Eid al-Fitr, the fast is over. The prayers are being said. And from New York to London to Riyadh to Tehran, the people who lead nations and cities are finding their own ways to mark a day that arrives, this year, in circumstances unlike any recent Eid.
Washington: A greeting from the White House
The statement came a day or two before the holiday, as has been the practice in prior American administrations. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump extended wishes to all Americans celebrating Eid al-Fitr, describing the occasion as a reflection of the country’s founding commitment to religious liberty.The message followed the general shape of prior White House Eid greetings, brief, warm in register, focused on domestic values. It did not address the ongoing conflict with Iran.Across the United States, in mosques from Dearborn to Houston to the outer boroughs of New York, communities gathered for Eid prayer in the early morning. Many had spent Ramadan following developments in the region with particular closeness. The White House message reached them through news alerts and social media feeds, read on the same phones that had been carrying images from the conflict throughout the month.
New York: Thirty-four iftars and one mayor
Zohran Mamdani became New York City’s first Muslim mayor on January 1 this year. By the final days of Ramadan, he had attended 17 iftars across the five boroughs, among his most frequent public engagements during the month.The settings ranged widely. He broke fast with men held at Rikers Island. He sat with taxi drivers at the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, an organisation where, in an earlier part of his career, he had fasted for fifteen days in solidarity with cab drivers fighting a medallion debt crisis. He hosted hospital workers. He attended community iftars in neighbourhoods where the evening meal drew together families from many different countries, all observing the same fast.“For nearly as long as there has been a New York City, there have been Muslim New Yorkers,” he told one gathering in March.His public visibility during Ramadan generated both support and criticism. An Alabama senator posted a comment on social media drawing a connection to the September 11 attacks. A radio commentator made remarks that drew their own public response. Demonstrators gathered outside his home on at least one occasion. Mamdani continued his schedule throughout, signed executive orders and attended the remaining iftars on his calendar.On Eid morning, he joined the prayer at a mosque in the city. Elsewhere in New York, the day proceeded as Eids in the city do, families in new clothes moving toward mosques in Jackson Heights and Bay Ridge and Hollis, the smell of cooking already moving through apartment buildings before the sun was fully up.
London: Prayers in the square
In London, the morning broke over Trafalgar Square, where the open-air Eid prayer drew thousands of worshippers. Families arrived in shalwar kameez and abayas, in suits and headscarves, spreading across the stone plaza in rows that stretched back toward the National Gallery.London Mayor Sadiq Khan attended, as he has in previous years.In the days before the gathering, the prayers had become the subject of public debate. A Conservative MP had made comments describing mass outdoor Muslim prayer as unwelcome in public spaces. Prime Minister Keir Starmer responded at Prime Minister’s Questions, listing religious gatherings that take place in Trafalgar Square across different faiths and describing them as part of the country’s social fabric.By Friday morning the square was full. The rows of worshippers extended across the plaza. The sound of the prayer carried across the fountain water. Visitors who had not known the prayer was taking place stood at the edges and watched.Starmer had also, in the days before Eid, reiterated Britain’s position of not participating in military action against Iran. At a press conference on March 16 he said: “I have been attacked by some for my decision not to join the offensive against Iran. But at every stage, I have stood by my principles, principles I held just as strongly when it came to the debate on the Iraq war in 2003.”
Riyadh and the Gulf: Inside the mosques
In Mecca, the Eid prayer at Masjid al-Haram drew the congregation it draws every year, large, orderly, moving through the architecture of the mosque in the early morning light. King Salman bin Abdulaziz marked the occasion with a message to Muslims around the world, calling for peace and security and asking God to protect “our brave heroes and soldiers stationed on our borders.”In the United Arab Emirates, the Eid prayer was confined entirely to mosques this year. Outdoor congregational prayers were restricted on security grounds, a departure from the usual practice of families gathering in parks and open spaces in the cool of the morning. The decision was announced in advance and the prayers proceeded indoors without incident.In Dubai, the malls had been decorated for weeks with crescent moons and Eid greetings on digital displays. On the morning of the holiday, the streets were quieter than a normal Friday. Families moved between mosque and home in the early hours and the day settled into the usual pattern of visits and meals.
Ankara: At the crossroads
In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivered his Eid message in the morning. It referenced the conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran and called for compassion and dialogue among nations. His foreign minister has been present at meetings in Riyadh and Doha in recent weeks, where regional governments have been in discussion about the broader situation.Turkey holds membership in NATO while maintaining longstanding relationships across the Muslim world and with parties on multiple sides of the current conflict. Erdogan marked the day, extended his greetings and continued the schedule of calls with regional leaders that has occupied much of his recent calendar.
Tehran: A quiet Eid
In Iran, the Eid prayer was held in mosques across the country. State television broadcast the morning prayer from Tehran. The hall was full.Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who was appointed after his father was killed in the February 28 strikes, did not appear in public. His Eid message was delivered through state media, read by an anchor and accompanied by a photograph. No public appearance has been confirmed since his appointment.In displacement camps established in the west and north of the country following the strikes, families who had left their homes during the conflict observed Eid with the resources available to them. Aid organisations reported that in several locations, volunteers had arranged small celebrations for children, sweets and donated clothes, the gestures that mark the holiday for younger observers. The fast had been kept throughout Ramadan in those camps. The prayer was said on Eid morning.
The day itself
By midmorning on March 20, the prayers had been said on every continent. The tables were being set. In New York, families were gathered in apartments in Jackson Heights and Bay Ridge and Hollis. In London, people were making their way between homes in Whitechapel and Wembley and Croydon. In Istanbul, the ferries crossing the Bosphorus were full of people travelling to visit relatives on the other shore.
