Source: Yahoo News
Wire Service: AP
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090821/ap_on_re_us/us_rel_long_hot_ramadan
During most of his high school football career, Baquer Sayed broke the Ramadan fast during halftime, when the stadium lights began to flood the field after sundown.
With the traditional sunrise-to-sunset fast set to last a few hours longer this year because of where it falls in the Islamic calendar, the heavily recruited wide receiver at suburban Detroit's Fordson High is going to have to hold out until after the final whistle.
Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, will begin in August for the first time in 33 years this year. Moreover, it will be creeping deeper into summer for each of the next seven years because the Islamic lunar calendar is roughly 11 days shorter than the international solar calendar. That means Muslims in the U.S. face longer, hotter days of religious devotion because of longer, hotter summer days — and that Sayed will play before recruiters on an empty stomach this year.