Ramadan Terror
Dr. Mordechai Kedar
Ramadan may be a month of fasting and prayer, but it is also a month of terror and violence.
Ramadan is the most important month in the Muslim calendar. The Qu’ran descended from the heavens on the night called Laylat-al-Qadr (Night of Destiny) towards the end of the month of Ramadan and according to the Qu’ran, that night is “better than a thousand months.” The entire month is intended to be a time for drawing closer to Allah, repenting from sin, and refraining from partaking in earthly pleasures such as eating, drinking and smoking.It is a time for acts of kindness, for helping the poor, visiting relatives and improving inter-personal relationships.
Eating is forbidden from before dawn on the first day of the month of Ramadan, which in Israel is at about 4 a.m. The sixteen-hour fast continues until nightfall, ending at about 8 p.m. In other parts of the globe, the fast’s duration can be longer or shorter. This year, Ramadan falls during the summer in the northern hemisphere and it doesn’t take much imagination to understand the significance of fasting, and even more of not drinking, in the deserts of LIbya, Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia – in fact, in the entire Middle East. It’s hard to get through one day of the fast, let alone 29 or 30 consecutive days. In Brussels, for example, the fast lasts about 19 hours, from 3 a.m. until 10 p.m. At least, however, the weather in Brussels is more pleasant than it is in Libya – as is the general atmosphere.
Drawing closer to Allah during Ramadan means a longer prayer service, adding night prayers, spending hours in the mosque, listening to live and recorded sermons, extra careful observance of Islamic commandments and avoidance of sin. This heightened religious sensitivity is also felt towards those who are seen as a problem to Islam: throughout Islamic history, rulers saw the Ramadan period as a time of threat to the stability of their regimes, especially if their Islamic legitimacy was shaky because of the way they rose to power (murdering their predecessor, for example), their behavior questionable (liquor and morality), and their rule oppressive.
In the days of the Ottoman Empire, it was customary to begin and end the fast by firing a cannon, arms being under the control of the local ruler. The cannon had a double message: fixing the beginning and end of the fast, and reminding the public of just who is in charge and what can happen to anyone who tries to disturb the regime’s stability and its citizens’ tranquillity.
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Ramadan has always been the month of Islamic glory, celebrating the fact that a large number of battles that took place during the holy month ended in Islamic victories. These victories were believed to be the reward granted by Allah to the Islamic nation for its careful observance of the fast. It is important to note in this context that a Jihadist fighter is free of the obligation to fast if it interferes with his ability to fight and is allowed to make up the fast days after Ramadan. The Yom Kippur War, seen in the Muslim world as a great victory over Israel, took place during Ramadan.
We are in the midst of this period of heightened collective religious consciousness, and the atmosphere, suffused with religious fervor, affects what is going on in the Islamic world. There has been an increase in “successful” operations by Islamic Jihad against its enemies: in Judea and Samaria there is a marked rise in the number of terrorist attacks against Israelis, civilians and security personnel, and a great deal of incitement against Israel, even worse than usual, in the Arab media.
Islamic State is escalating its actions against its perceived enemies; at the beginning of Ramadan, it showed a horrifying movie in which it portrayed unusually cruel ways of murdering people: drowning them in a metal cage, blowing people up by tying explosives to their necks, firing a missile at a vehicle filled with prisoners who had been sentenced to death. And for the first time, Islamic State beheaded two women.
While on the subject of Islamic State, it should be understood that this state does not hide its intentions to conquer and subjugate the entire world under Islam.
Continue reading ISIL does not hide its intentions to conquer and subjugate the entire world under Islam
This fuzzy picture of Mogherini with Arafat remained prominently displayed on Facebook page until recently (picture: blitzquotidiano.it/rassegna-stampa).
