New Ramadhan rules to help Nordic Muslims in midnight sun
June 11, 2015 22:33
Muslims in the Nordic region can expect new guidelines for coping with a sun that never sets ahead of the holy fasting month of Ramadhan, a Swedish Muslim association said Thursday.
Ramadan begins on June 18 this year -- three days before the longest day of the year -- when the sun blazes around the clock above the Arctic Circle and only sets for a few hours further south, presenting a problem for Muslims who are meant to fast until sunset.
"We've got two difficult questions, not just when you can break the fast in the north but also when you should start fasting," Mohammed Kharraki, a spokesman for Sweden's Islamic Association, told AFP.
"You're supposed to start fasting before the sun rises, at dawn. But there is no real dawn in the summer months in Stockholm."
In previous years Muslims in sub-Arctic towns like Kiruna were advised to break their fast at the same time as people in the south but a meeting of Swedish and European imams in northern Sweden this week recommended a new approach.
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