generalspeaking

Religious Sanctity and Misunderstandings

It is a time of blessing in the world of Islam, particularly in the Arab world, the opportunities to do good things for one another, to prove themselves worthy as good Muslims, during Ramadan. The reward resides in the balm to one's soul, basking in the understanding that Islam calls upon its faithful to observe the rules of fasting between sunup and sundown. This cleanses the soul, a yearly rite within the Five Pillars of Islam.

The month of Ramadan is that in which was revealed the Quran; a guidance for mankind, and clear proofs of the guidance, and the criterion (of right and wrong). And whosoever of you is present, let him fast the month, and whosoever of you is sick or on a journey, a number of other days. Allah desires for you ease; He desires not hardship for you; and that you should complete the period, and that you should magnify Allah for having guided you, and that perhaps you may be thankful.^{[Quran 2:185]}

And so it is that the faithful observe the tenets and the requirements wherever they happen to be all over the world. And all over the world where the ummah resides, they feel blessed taking part in the ceremonial needs of the tradition their religion calls upon them to honour. The Arab Middle East was the crucible of Islam, it is where the Prophet Mohammed experienced his celestial epiphany. The Koran is an Arabic text, one that pious Muslims learn at a young age to recite.

Wherever in the world that Muslims live in Muslim-majority countries like Indonesia, Bangladesh or Pakistan or Afghanistan (Hindu-majority India is second to Indonesia in numbers of Muslims) Arabic remains the language of the Koran, recited by those to whom the language is foreign and who do not know the language, and so the authenticity of their status is seen to be inferior to that of the Arabs. Yet there Ramadan does not appear to be afflicted by violence.

As it is in the Arab countries of the Middle East. During Ramadan, the most populous Arab country in the world, Egypt with its 85-million people, is embroiled in conflict, Islamists running amok, confronting and killing moderate Muslims. In Tunisia, where the Arab Spring sprang to life, Islamists assassinate socialist-minded Muslims during Ramadan. In Turkey an Islamist government shoots water cannon and tear gas at its protesting populace during Ramadan.

And in Syria, the Shia-minority regime of Alawites is in full assault throttle against its majority Sunni population fiercely determined to no longer live under the tyrannical rule of a despot. That conflict has drawn in blood-letting Islamists representing both of the sectarian divide, al-Qaeda linked Sunnis prepared to wreak atrocities on any who do not subscribe to fundamentalist Sharia law, and jihadist Hezbollah linked to the terror state of Iran subscribing to Shia-shaded Sharia.

In Iraq as a special attraction for Ramadan, al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorists have set up checkpoints to identify Shia vehicle drivers and kill them on the spot. The bodies of the unfortunate pile up gruesomely. They have sent out suicide bombers to crowded cafes, with bombs exploding in the interior of cafes killing diners and wounding others. Mortar rounds are launched at military bases, and communication towers bombed. Mosques, Islam's holy places of refuge and communication with God are similarly bombed.

And the notorious Baghraib prison is attacked and 500 al-Qaeda prisoners released to a world grown weary of bombing and massacres, of suicide attacks and of mass slaughter.
 

"The mujahideen (holy warriors), after months of preparation and planning, targeted two of the largest prisons of the Safavid government,” the group said in a statement posted on a jihadist forum, using a pejorative term for Shiaa.

It is, after all, Ramadan.

Labels: Atrocities, Conflict, Islamism, Middle East, North Africa

posted by Pieface @ Friday, July 26, 2013