The Black Iris wishes his readers on the advent of the Holy Month, adding he is not looking forward for the ritual over the next decade. He explains:

And can anyone blame me? With Ramadan starting on the first of September this year, I can’t help but think of Ramadans to come. Yes, the mere thought of Ramadans to come sends shivers down my spine. I imagine being unable to eat and more importantly drink (H20) until the red hot summer Sun descends some time around 7-ish. I imagine heat and exhaustion. I imagine the average Jordanian’s intolerance capacity increasing substantially, and that includes me. Skyrocketing actually. I imagine everything that would normally go slow due to the heat, come to a screeching halt with Ramadani summers. And to think, with the Ramadan start-date moving back ten days every year, this is a cycle that will take a few decades before getting back to the cooler, appropriately-timed-sunset, months.

Bakkouz [Ar] asks whether fasting has become a social ritual, instead of the religious spiritual experience it is supposed to be. He raises two points in his post about Ramadhan and prayers, which Muslims must perform five times a day, every day.

نلاحظ إقبال المسلمين الشديد على أداء النوافل في المساجد في شهر رمضان، وأخص بالتحديد صلاة التراويح، فنرى الناس تتوافد جماعات جماعات لأداء صلاة التراويح في المساجد. هذا بحد ذاته أمر لا غرابة فيه، ولكن الغريب هو انه في مقابل هذا الحرص الشديد من الأخ المسلم على أداء صلاة التراويح والتي هي صلاة سنّة (اي ليست بفرض)، فإننا نرى في المقابل عزوفا ولا مبالاة فيما يتعلق بأداء الصلوات الخمس المفروضة في المساجد. أي أن المسلم يحرص أشد الحرص على صلاة التراويح في المسجد بينما لا يكترث لا بل لا يكلف نفسه عناء صلاة الفروض كالفجر والظهر والعصر والمغرب في المسجد. فهل صلاة التراويح والتي هي سنة أضحت اهم من صلاة الفرض؟

I notice a large number of Muslims flock to mosques to observe the rituals during Ramadhan, especially the Taraweeh prayers. Groups of people amass on mosques to perform them. This isn't surprising but what is strange is how keen Muslims are to perform those prayers which are not obligatory. In return, I notice that many shun performing the five obligatory prayers in mosques. This means that Muslims are keen to pray the Taraweeh prayers in mosques but not the five obligatory prayers of dawn (fajr), noon (dhuhr), afternoon (a'sr), dusk (maghreb) and night (Ishaa) prayers in a mosque. Have the Taraweeh prayers which are a Sunnah [customary practise/tradition] become more important than the obligatory prayers?

Bakkouz also wonders about those who only pray and fast during Ramadhan. He says:

بمناسبة الحديث عن التقليد والعادة الاجتماعية وبمناسبة الحديث عن الصلاة أيضا، فإننا نرى الكثير الكثير من الناس يصومون شهر رمضان وهم لا يصلون. فهل يصح الصيام بدون صلاة؟ أوليست الصلاة عماد الدين؟

And while discussing traditions, social customs and prayer, I notice that a lot of people who fast during Ramadhan but don't pray. Is their fasting accepted without prayer? Isn't performing prayers the pillar of religion?

And Moey announces that his blog will be fasting too and promises his readers a more spiritual approach to blogging. He notes:

Moey’s blog, one of the most famous Jordanian blogs, will mark the Holy Month of Ramadan in quiet contemplation, and post supportive/clean posts for everyone to read. I will refrain from swearing, saying horrible things and using bad language during the holy month of Ramadan. Will rant when I need to, I’ll try to make it less offensive.
I’m taking this Ramadan into consideration, as a diet…
Happy Ramadan I guess.

The official Tunisia.com blog congratulated Mellouli on taking home Tunisia's first gold medal in 40 years:

Congratulations to Oussama Mellouli who dug in when it counted to beat the legendary Grant Hackett over the 1500 meters swim in the games.

In what is a tough event Oussama beat the odds and delivered the first gold for over 40 years!

Algeria.com details Algeria's Olympic history, shares the stats so far, and gives a bit of encouragement:

It is hoped that between the track athletes and the boxers that Algeria will be able to add a few more medals to their collection, and walk away from another successful Olympic Games. Algeria has shown their ability to be worthy competitors and it seems that every year they are growing in strength and diversity.

Morocco's The View from Fez shared the exciting news of Hasna Benhassi's bronze medal, Morocco's first in Beijing, praising the runner for her success:

Benhassi was already among the greatest Moroccan women athletes in history even before her silver medal 800m performances in the Athens Olympics and the World Championships in Helsinki in 2005 and Osaka in 2007. She had won gold at 800m in the 2000 African Championships and at 1500m in the 2001 World Indoor Championships in Lisbon, becoming only the second female Moroccan athlete, after Nezha Bidouane, to win a World Championship title. But she has remained very much in the shadow of her brilliant compatriot, Hicham El Guerrouj.

Although Libya has not yet won a medal, its bloggers have been talking about the Olympics. Anglo-Libyan blogged the opening ceremonies and discussed swimmer Asmahan (Mercedes) Farhat's first race:

Yesterday I watched the swimming heats on BBC but they never showed the 100-meter breaststroke that Asmahan Farhat took part in, the picture on the left is Asmahan getting ready for her swim, she did not do that well although she did manage to break her own record but she enjoyed taking part, you can read her blog entry, it was funny reading how she was dressed in an east Libyan costume by old ladies, to me this is the best and most beautiful Libyan costume.

Farhat, a Libyan-American competing for Libya, wrote a blog post for her local U.S. newspaper about participating in the Olympics, and said this about getting to warm up in the same lane as Michael Phelps:

During warm up I got to swim in his lane. That's right, right next to him and I will honestly say that nothing makes you swim faster than when Michael Phelps is swimming behind you and you don't want to get in his way!

When he swims past you, you can feel the power that he pushes the water with and how smooth he moves in the water. Most swimmers I've swam in a lane with you can feel them fighting the water and the waves are choppy, but when he swims next to you there are barely any forceful waves.

It is unbelievable, it's almost like the waters moving with him. It was the most memorable warm-up swim I've ever swam for sure!

Although bloggers are proud of what their countrymen have accomplished, one blogger feels that Arab countries could do more. Musings of a Proud Arab posted on the eighth Olympic day, frustrated by the lack of Arab medalists. The Jordanian blogger, who lives in the UAE, encourages Arab countries to unite for the gold:

We should not be there just to participate for our national flags to fly within the Olympic Village and in the Parade of Nations. This got me thinking and I want to share a solution with you; have ALL of the 22 Arab countries contribute half of their budgets to a collective consolidated budget that will be used as a Regional Trial to choose the BEST ARAB ATHLETES and train them to bring us gold.There are several reasons for this; 1) the Arab common person is united in their support of Arabs in the Olympics as it reflects on all of us (where we are really united), 2) it allows the countries to still have their symbolic participation in the Olympics (with half their budget), and 3) it will derive the athletes of the poor excuse that I did not perform because I did not have the support, especially financial from my National Olympic Committee.After all, the Arab countries combined have the same population of the United States. And we never hear complaints from them that on there are too many Californians with their Olympic athletes and not a single Alaskan!So, will this be an ideal or can the League of Arab States seriously work on achieving it from 2009? As a corporate person, I would place 12 gold medals as our target for 2012 London Olympics!

Bloggers in the Middle East are closely following the developments in Georgia, with some saying it could usher in World War Three. Here's a quick review of what bloggers in Yemen and Jordan are writing.

From Yemen, Omar Barsawad says a Third World War is probable - almost a century after the first. He explains:

Will NATO push on with its expansion? That would be reckless and extremely dangerous. As in both the first and second World Wars, accidentally - ‘one thing leads to another' until it becomes too late to stop events. The First World War happened, accidentally, mainly because one part of Europe wanted to be the dominant power there; the Second One, planned, was for the same reasons, but Hitler too - wanted to settle old scores and expand. And both World Wars, in one way or the other - were about power and dominating resources; mainly oil.

“Hasn't Europe learnt enough from their history of the last Century?” asks Barsawad. His other questions are:

Hasn't enough suffering, destruction and horrors happened there for them to learn to live with and accommodate each other, rather than one part wanting to expand and dominate? NATO continuously preaches that every country should respect each others borders, and yet it is aggressively expanding; what kind of message does that send? If Russia or China act in the same way - extending and spreading their arms and missiles, would NATO quietly and passively accept that?

Barsawad concludes:

Rubbing Russia's nose more and more and pushing it further and further could accidentally lead to the unimaginable: the Third World War. Any body ready for that? Nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction which both sides posses have so far been deterrents, but for how long?

Meanwhile, “Where's Georgia?” asks Jordanian blogger Naseem Tarawnah after discovering that is has been wiped off the map - Google Map, that is.

When you’re my age and you read about wars and conflict in history books, everything always seems so formulaic and perhaps even a bit ancient. So I was surprised to see today, something that speaks a little more to my generation. Apparently, the Russian-invaded country Georgia that has been making headlines this month, has been wiped off the map of the world. Google maps that is.

Tarawnah then explains the reason why Georgia doesn't appear on the map:

With infrastructure being the first target of most conflicts, the search engine giant, Google, doesn’t want to be seen as helping either side with its mapping technology. The company has since removed all the details normally seen on Google maps of a country, that include roads, towns and cities in Georgia, as well as from the maps of neighboring countries Azerbaijan and Armenia

Fellow blogger Hareega, also from Jordan, uses the crisis as an opportunity to poke fun of US President George Bush, calling his geographical knowledge into question:

The war between Russia and Georgia has got ugly. When President Bush heard about Georgia being under heavy fire, he asked the citizens of Atlanta to hold on and keep hosting the Olympics the best they could.