- Title: RAMADAN-RELIGION/ IRAQ-SOUP KITCHEN Baghdad soup kitchen feeds the fasting
- Date: 29th June 2015
- Summary: BAGHDAD, IRAQ (RECENT)(REUTERS) STREET SCENE IN BAGHDAD PEOPLE CARRYING CONTAINERS GATHERING AT SUNNI MOSQUE OF ABDUL QADIR AL-GAILANI MORE OF PEOPLE GATHERING AT WINDOW OF MOSQUE TO RECEIVE SOUP WOMEN AND CHILDREN QUEUING TO HAVE SOUP LARGE POTS OF SOUP AT KITCHEN OF MOSQUE OF SHEIKH ABDUL QADER AL-GAILANI SOUP POTS MAN STIRRING SOUP IN LARGE POT WOMEN CARRYING CONTAINERS
- Embargoed: 14th July 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Iraq
- Country: Iraq
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA1J61W8TM1Q6EKFJE0PEX5G8O
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Gathering outside one of Iraq's historic mosques, people queue to receive a free meal.
During the month of Ramadan the kitchen staff at the Sheikh Abdul Qadir al-Gailani mosque are busy making food to feed hundreds of people.
People bring pots and pans with them, so that the staff here can fill their utensils with the home-made chicken and lentil soup.
The charity, which has been run by the mosque since it was first built seven centuries ago, relies on private donations from wealthy families in the form of cash or products such as rice, lentils or meat.
Prior to the U.S -led invasion, the mosque used to serve food at sunset. But, due to the unstable security situation, the kitchen staff prefer to distribute food at 1:30 - 2 pm., six hours before the evening prayers which mark the end of the daily fast to give the families plenty of time to reach their homes before dark.
"It is an ancient kitchen. I remember the kitchen in the 90s when I was a child when it was inside the courtyard of the mosque. Now it was moved outside to the the other side in Fadhwa district. It serves poor people out of the donations of the people. People donate various food items to the mosque to be distributed among poor people. The kitchen serve food at 1:30 p.m. and they distribute food items at 11 am,'' said Waid Sami Abbas who works in the kitchen.
The tradition of distributing food is one of the few rituals to have survived the outbreak of violence since the U.S.-led coalition forces invaded Iraq in 2003.
In recent decades, the soup kitchen has been catering for the needy during the fasting month of Ramadan, when the poor from across the city would make their way to the kitchen each evening, knowing that a hot plate of food awaits them.
But now those numbers are growing, with the rise of the number of displaced people due to the presence of IS in the country.
"It (the kitchen) serves the poor. Around 400-500 families are being fed by the mosque and in current circumstances we also serve the families from our displaced people of Anbar province who are living in the areas near Bab al-Sheikh and Fadhwat Arab and those living in Qadiriya courtyard. We distribute food for them," said Hashim Mohammed Rasheed who works in the mosque's kitchen.
According to the United Nations, more than three million Iraqis have been displaced across the country since last June, when the north's biggest city, Mosul, fell to Sunni insurgents who have harried Shi'ite Turkmen and Shabaks, Yezidis and Christians.
The UN launched an appeal earlier this month for half a billion dollars in international aid to tackle a worsening humanitarian crisis in Iraq triggered by the conflict with Islamic State militants.
The world body said it was asking donors for 497 million U.S dollars to pay for shelter, food and water over the next six months for millions of Iraqis forced from their homes or otherwise affected by violence between Iraqi forces and Islamic State fighters.
The mosque is famed as the burial place of Sufi Sheikh Abdul Qadir al-Gailani, and a dome built by Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent still stands in the mosque complex.
The mosque, a Sunni shrine that is also revered by Shi'ites, was originally a religious school. It was built by the Hanbali scholar Sheikh Abu Said al-Mubarak bin Ali al-Mukharrami. The school was later renovated and extended by his disciple Sheikh Abdul Qadir al-Gailani who lived, taught, and was eventually buried in the school in 1165. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None