"Muslims set to fast in summer heat" Associated Press, July 21, 2012
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Muslims from Morocco to Afghanistan are steeling themselves for the toughest Ramadan in more than three decades. No food or drink, not even a sip of water, for 14 hours a day during the hottest time of the year.
The monthlong test of self-restraint is made harder by daily power cuts in some parts of the Muslim world such as Iraq, Pakistan, and Gaza.With temperatures in the region routinely above 104 degrees and days at their longest of the year, governments are trying to alleviate the hardships of the sunrise-to-sunset fast.
Morocco resets the clock so followers can break the fast an hour early. Pakistan vows to cut daily blackouts, which last up to 22 hours. Civil service workers work fewer hours.
Despite the hardship, for many Muslims it’s the most anticipated part of the year — a time of family togetherness and religious devotion, a break from routine. Muslims believe God revealed the first verses of the Koran to the Prophet Mohammed during Ramadan.
The last time Ramadan started in mid-July was 1980. Winter fasts are easier because of cooler temperatures and shorter days. This year, Ramadan starts in most of the Muslim world Friday, though some mark the beginning Saturday.
Clerics say Islam exempts from the fast those in certain circumstances — the elderly, sick, pregnant women, nursing mons, children, travelers.
Authorities in the United Arab Emirates allow laborers to break their fast if the temperature exceeds 122 degrees.
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Something else that will make 'em hot:
"Mideast nuclear conference in jeopardy" by George Jahn | Associated Press, May 09, 2012
VIENNA - Hopes dimmed Tuesday for major nuclear talks this year between Israel and its Muslim rivals, as Iran and Arab countries at a 189-nation conference accused Israel of being the greatest threat to peace in the region and Egypt warned that Arab states might rethink their opposition to atomic arms.
They are the only one with atomic weapons.
Because Israel has not signed the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, it was not present at Tuesday’s gathering of treaty members. But the United States defended its ally, warning that singling out Israel for criticism diminished chances of a planned meeting between it and its Muslim neighbors to explore the prospect of a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction.
The Mideast conference planned for later this year was a key plank of a monthlong 2010 gathering of treaty signatories that convenes every five years to review the objectives of the 42-year-old treaty. Muslim nations have warned that failure to hold the Mideast meeting would call into question the overall achievements of the 2010 conference.
Egypt, speaking for nonaligned signatory nations said Israel’s nuclear capabilities constitute “a threat to international peace and security.’’
Sure looks like it to me.
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You up for a big meal now?
"Ramadan offers Muslims time for reflection and to remove distractions" by Lisa Wangsness | Globe Staff, August 18, 2012
Nimrah Bakhsh calls “Keeping up with the Kardashians,” the E! reality series, her “guiltiest, grossest pleasure.” But during Ramadan, she doesn’t see much of Kourtney, Kim, and Khloe, the celebrity sisters at the center of the show.
Ramadan, the holiest month on the Islamic calendar, which ends on Sunday, is not only a time to fast from food, water, and sex during the daylight hours. Muslims also try to abstain from worldly sins and distractions — including gossip and backbiting, which the Koran likens to eating the flesh of a dead brother.
They are telling me not to read a newspaper.
That’s easier said than done in a world saturated with social networking, texting, and reality TV. So, many young Muslims reevaluate their consumption of frivolous media and electronic communication during Ramadan. Some choose to scale back, or tune out altogether.
For the 28-year-old Bakhsh, executive assistant to Imam Suhaib Webb and website manager at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center in Roxbury, nixing even the occasional indulgence in reality TV is spiritually invigorating.
“It allows me to fill the space of my mind and thoughts with things that are cleaner, purer, more relevant, rather than unnecessary entertainment,” she said.
Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, is when Muslims believe Allah revealed the Koran to the Prophet Muhammad. Muslims believe the gates of heaven are open during this month, and God is especially close.
“It’s a month of reflection, really, on one’s behavior,” said Ali Asani, director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program at Harvard. “The idea of Ramadan is to try to sort of realign oneself, and to really think about what it means to be human, and bring out the best qualities, so you are worthy of being called God’s noblest creation.”
Fasting during this period is one of the five pillars, or main principles, of Islam. At its most basic level, the Ramadan fast requires not eating, drinking, or having sex with one’s spouse between sunrise and sunset, a practice meant to teach self-discipline and promote solidarity with the poor.
But Ramadan is also an important opportunity to practice being a better person. So Muslims also engage in an internal fast from bad behavior, such as lying, swearing, smoking, arguing, and gossiping. They also try to avoid exposure to evil done by others. Ideally, the changes will stick long after the holy month ends.
“My goal is to not only to stay away from food and drink and sex. I am to start working on other things — like how I talk, how I treat people, how I engage people,” said Webb, imam of the Roxbury mosque.
Webb said Islam is particularly concerned with backbiting — defined as saying something about someone else, in that person’s absence, that the person would not like — because it destroys a person’s social relationships, which are directly correlated with a person’s relationship with God. The Koran forbids backbiting at any time of the year, but the prohibition takes on special importance during Ramadan.
“We believe human beings are sacred,” Webb said. “So when you make fun of someone for how they look, you are making fun of who made them. You are insulting the Creator.”
Avoiding idle chatter and meanness is not so easy, though, in a contemporary world filled with snarky status updates, jeering tweets, and celebrity gossip. Even Muslims who strenuously avoid gossip and backbiting themselves can’t control what their friends post.
“That’s why I think people are staying away from social media,” Asani said. “They don’t want to encounter something they feel would break the spirit of the month.”
Probably a good idea now that you know they are all intelligence agency collection platforms.
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Not everyone thinks avoiding normal use of technology is a great idea. Imam Talal Eid, founder of the Islamic Institute of Boston and Muslim chaplain at Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women’s hospitals, said Ramadan is meant to help people rid themselves of their bad habits, not to withdraw from their regular lives.
“In my opinion, this is like going from one extreme to another,” he said. “The idea is to … make sure the chatting is meaningful and educational, not gossiping or destroying relations.”
Some young Muslims embrace social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to display photographs of people worshiping or quotes from the Koran.
Nour Tabidi, 16, of Hyde Park, an incoming freshman at the University of Massachusetts Boston, said she and her friends tweet positive messages about their experience of Ramadan. The other day, when she was returning home from the mosque near dawn she saw the moon. “It was so breathtaking, and it was in a crescent shape, which is kind of the symbol for Islam,” she said. “I tweeted, ‘The moon is beautiful.’ And some of my friends were like, ‘Retweet!’ ”
Ramadan is already bearing fruit for Hisham Mabrook, a young management consultant, who said he has checked Facebook far less frequently during the last month, and has found that he is far more productive.
“I don’t waste as much time,” he said.
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"Civil war in Syria takes toll on Ramadan festivities" by Albert Aji and Diaa Hadid | Associated Press, July 11, 2013
DAMASCUS — As the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began Wednesday, many Syrians who observe the daily dawn-to-dusk fast that ends with a lavish family meal were struggling to maintain a festive mood and holiday warmth as the country’s bloody conflict rages for a third year.
In one rebel-held city, residents have resorted to begging for crumbs at a local soup kitchen, while in a camp on the Jordanian border, refugees languishing in the desert heat lament being separated from relatives back home.
Related: Jordan in Jeopardy?
Reflecting the deprivation brought on by the war, the United Nations food agency said that 7 million people were now reliant on food aid simply to eat. The fighting that has destroyed much of the country has also caused prices to soar, leaving many Syrians struggling to get by.
‘‘People come by the kitchen just begging for scraps,’’ said an activist in the rebel-held northern Syrian city of Maarat al-Numan. ‘‘It tears the heart.’’
Same thing with the 48 million hungry and homeless in the U.S.
At the Zaatari refugee camp in the Jordanian desert, many of the 120,000 Syrians in the sprawling tent city were homesick and miserable.
You can thank the "Al-CIA-Duh" mercenary army for that.
‘‘Carrying out the Ramadan fast in this refugee camp is extremely difficult in every way imaginable,’’ said Abu Qusai, a 32-year-old construction worker from the restive southern province of Daraa, where the uprising against President Bashar Assad began in March 2011. ‘‘It is as dry as a bone. and the dust is kicking up. We’re thirsty, dirty, and very uncomfortable. We’re fed up.’’
Ramadan is traditionally a time of reflection and prayer, and Muslims are expected to abstain from food, drink, smoking, and sex during the daylight hours and instead focus on spirituality, good deeds, and charity. But the hardships of the war in Syria have eroded much of the Ramadan joy.
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I guess only Syria is celebrating Ramadan this year (according to my Jewish War Daily)
And the end of the fast:
"Elsewhere in the country, thousands staged antigovernment protests in mosques and cemeteries following special prayers marking Eid al-Fitr, the three-day holiday that ends the holy fasting month of Ramadan. Pious Muslims traditionally visit graves and recite prayers for the dead on the holiday."
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"19 die in Iraq coffee shop bombing" by Qassim Abdul-Zahra | Associated Press, July 13, 2013\
BAGHDAD — A bomb struck a crowded coffee shop late Friday in the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, killing at least 19 and wounding more than two dozen in the latest in a string of attacks in Iraq since the start of the holy month of Ramadan this week.
I just can't imagine who would do such a thing, can you?
You know, I'm sorry I'm not buying the Jewish/CIA mouthpiece narrative of sectarian slaughter these days, but you know.... (blog editor frowns)
More than 2,600 people have been killed since the start of April, raising fears that Iraq is once again edging toward the brink of civil war a decade after Saddam Hussein was toppled.
Ah, the intelligence agency code for sending the Saudi-$ponsored mercenary army back into Iraq after it defeat in Syria to disrupt and destabilize the Shi'ite crescent AmeriKa created out of the its invasion of Iraq.
The blast exploded in the Classico Cafe in southern Kirkuk as patrons were enjoying tea and water pipes hours after the sunset meal that breaks the daylong Ramadan fast, police said....
It brought to 24 the number of people killed in attacks in the country on Friday.
Related: Iraq Carnage: 96 Killed, 191 Wounded
Nothing like minimizing and under-reporting stuff.
Earlier in the day, a car bomber struck a police patrol outside Mosul, killing four officers, a medical official said.
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NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"19 die in Iraq coffee shop bombing" by Qassim Abdul-Zahra | Associated Press, July 13, 2013\
BAGHDAD — A bomb struck a crowded coffee shop late Friday in the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, killing at least 19 and wounding more than two dozen in the latest in a string of attacks in Iraq since the start of the holy month of Ramadan this week.
I just can't imagine who would do such a thing, can you?
You know, I'm sorry I'm not buying the Jewish/CIA mouthpiece narrative of sectarian slaughter these days, but you know.... (blog editor frowns)
More than 2,600 people have been killed since the start of April, raising fears that Iraq is once again edging toward the brink of civil war a decade after Saddam Hussein was toppled.
Ah, the intelligence agency code for sending the Saudi-$ponsored mercenary army back into Iraq after it defeat in Syria to disrupt and destabilize the Shi'ite crescent AmeriKa created out of the its invasion of Iraq.
The blast exploded in the Classico Cafe in southern Kirkuk as patrons were enjoying tea and water pipes hours after the sunset meal that breaks the daylong Ramadan fast, police said....
It brought to 24 the number of people killed in attacks in the country on Friday.
Related: Iraq Carnage: 96 Killed, 191 Wounded
Nothing like minimizing and under-reporting stuff.
Earlier in the day, a car bomber struck a police patrol outside Mosul, killing four officers, a medical official said.
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