

TOKYO: Muslims came out in large numbers on Sunday to the Tokyo Camii (mosque) for a Ramadan Iftar dinner after the sunset prayer.
Nearly 400 meals are served by cooks who take turns working late in the evening and before dawn for the Iftar.
According to the mosque’s imam, nearly 700 people could eat after the prayer and the muezzin’s call, which marked the breaking of the fasting after 6 p.m., Japan time. In Ramadan, Tokyo Mosque serves free Iftar meals every evening from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Several of the Muslims attending said they prayed for the goodness of their loved ones, while others, like Ismaël, a young Canadian computer scientist of Tunisian origin, said they were praying for peace and an end to conflicts.
The Tokyo Mosque, managed by a Turkish organization, was lit up in the rain, and some cherry blossoms bloomed in the foreground, a rarity as a cold March in Japan had early blossoms.