Mecca

A man sorts donations for families in need in the central Iraqi holy city of Najaf on Wednesday. (Haidar Hamdani / AFP)Paying no attention to the tenets of social distancing, the abaya-shrouded women — no masks or gloves among them — crowded into the Baghdad square surrounding the shrine to…

Paying no attention to the tenets of social distancing, the abaya-shrouded women — no masks or gloves among them — crowded into the Baghdad square surrounding the shrine to Imam Musa Kadhim.“I invite China, Italy and Iran,” one of the women said to a journalist from a satellite news station.…

BEIRUT—Down on Earth, the coronavirus outbreak was felling lives, livelihoods and normalcy. A nation-spanning blessing seemed called for. So up went a priest in a small airplane, rumbling overhead at an epidemiologically safe distance from the troubles below, wielding a sacred golden vessel from a cockpit-turned-pulpit.Before his flight over Lebanon,…

By: New York Times | Beirut | Published: March 25, 2020 10:24:13 am In a world where so many routines have been obliterated, it is the rites themselves that many cherish.(Sergey Ponomarev/The New York Times)(Written by Vivian Yee) Down on Earth, the coronavirus outbreak was felling lives, livelihoods and normalcy.…

The UAE which is home to the world's busiest international airport has suspended all passenger and transit flights in the battle against coronavirus.Dubai's airport is a vital hub connecting Western nations with Asian countries and Australia, and suspending transit flights there will impact travellers around the world. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, announced…

BEIRUT—Down on Earth, the coronavirus outbreak was felling lives, livelihoods and normalcy. A nation-spanning blessing seemed called for. So up went a priest in a small airplane, rumbling overhead at an epidemiologically safe distance from the troubles below, wielding a sacred golden vessel from a cockpit-turned-pulpit.Before his flight over Lebanon,…

JAKARTA/ISTANBUL/MOGADISHU (Reuters) - The coronavirus stopped communal Muslim prayers for the first time in living memory in many mosques from Indonesia to Morocco on Friday, but in some places believers have defied medical advice to join together in worship. In Islam's holiest sanctuary in Mecca, the usually crowded courtyard around…

Mosques are closed, sermons are shortened and communion causes anxietyEditor’s note: The Economist is making some of its most important coverage of the covid-19 pandemic freely available to readers of The Economist Today, our daily newsletter. To receive it, register here. For more coverage, see our coronavirus hubFOR CENTURIES the…

Mosques are closed, sermons are shortened and communion causes anxietyEditor’s note: The Economist is making some of its most important coverage of the covid-19 pandemic freely available to readers of The Economist Today, our daily newsletter. To receive it, register here. For more coverage, see our coronavirus hubFOR CENTURIES the…

Cairo has severely underreported the number of positive cases in the country, according to researchers. But authorities have taken it a step further by arresting people circulating figures higher than the official tally. In Egypt, the first person to die of the novel coronavirus was a 60-year-old German man who…