Malaysia feasts after the fast, but clerics disapprove

0 Comments | AFP, November, 2005

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) — It's Ramadan in Malaysia and by day waiters are idle, office canteens deserted, and workers are sluggish. But as night falls, roadside food stalls and lavish hotel buffets explode into life as Muslims break their fast in style.

Ramadan, the most sacred month in the Islamic calendar which is this week drawing to a close, sees many of the world's one billion Muslims abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex during daylight hours.

But it also triggers an annual late-night phenomenon of feasting, shopping and revelry in this predominantly Muslim country where food is an obsession.

Countless stalls sprout up on popular thoroughfares, selling a vast array of food for the breaking of fast or "buka puasa", from cakes to traditional dishes...