Ramadan is over now—thankfully, this year Iraqis got to celebrate the Eid al-Fitr without having to worry about being kidnapped—but for the month of September, Muslims worldwide fasted from food and drink and smoking and sex when the sun was above the horizon. And you thought Yom Kippur was tough.
Last week, the Baltimore Sun wrote about the struggle of fasting for Muslim athletes. Before that, the Columbus Post-Dispatch had a profile of The Ohio State’s Nader Abdallah, a football player keeping the faith despite a really big game against USC. And, a few years before that, I wrote a feature about a high school varsity player. His name was Hytham Elsherif, and he was a well-built starting O-lineman for Diamond Bar High School.
I’ve definitely written better stories, but this remains one of my favorites. Hytham (not pictured) was a cool, inspiring dude. An excerpt is after the jump:
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