A Tale Of Two Ramadans

October 1st, 2006 · No Comments

Compare and contrast if you will:

Ramadan is the ninth month of Hijri (Islamic) calendar. It is considered the most venerated, blessed and holiest month. Prayers, fasting, self-accountability and charity have special association with Ramadan. The religious observances of Ramadan occur throughout the entire Islamic calendar month.

In 2006 the month of Ramadan (1427 AH) began on September 23 (Saudi Arabia, Gulf and parts of the Middle East) and September 24 elsewhere (including the rest of the Middle East). It lasts through October 23.

Muslims believe that during Ramadan, the revelation of the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad began. The entire month is spent fasting from dawn to dusk. The first day of the next month is spent in great celebrations and rejoicings and is observed as the ‘Festival of Breaking Fast’ or `Eid ul-Fitr. Allah (God) commands Muslims to fast just as Christians and Jews were instructed to fast by their respective prophets, examples being the practices of Lent or Yom Kippur.

From Yahoo:

	Al-Qaida in Iraq‘s leader, in a chilling audiotape released Thursday, called for nuclear scientists to join his group’s holy war and urged insurgents to kidnap Westerners so they could be traded for a blind Egyptian sheik who is serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison.
	The fugitive terror chief said experts in the fields of “chemistry, physics, electronics, media and all other sciences — especially nuclear scientists and explosives experts” should join his group’s jihad, or holy war, against the West.
	“We are in dire need of you,” said the speaker, who identified himself as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir — also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri. “The field of jihad can satisfy your scientific ambitions, and the large American bases (in Iraq) are good places to test your unconventional weapons, whether biological or dirty, as they call them.”
	The 20-minute audio was posted to a Web site that frequently airs al-Qaida messages. The voice could not be independently identified, but it was thought to be al-Masri’s. He is believed to have succeeded Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who died in a U.S. airstrike north of Baghdad in June, as head of the al-Qaida-linked organization.