Who is Afraid of Ramadan?

Hamas hoodwinks the West, yet again

There is nothing more entertaining than seeing how the Western elites treat non-Christian and non-Jewish religious holidays, rituals and sites.    After spending a good part of the last 50 years trying to erase religion from the public square and from polite conversation, any supposed non-Western religion is treated with the utmost respect – like a child with a new piece of candy that their parents won’t yet let them eat,  they can’t help but to imagine what it will taste like.  Because they are so ignorant of religion, these stars swallow anything marketed to them.   

The new piece of candy is Ramadan – the Moslem holy month where adherents fast during the day and feast at night.  The Ramadan period is like no other in western religions.   Christianity has Lent where a personal sacrifice is made and Friday’s are to be for fasting (from what I understand that has mostly been done away with).  In Judaism there are 6 fast days with Yom Kippur as the most known.  Two of these fasts are 24 hour fasts and the rest are from sunrise to sunset.  Ramadan is a sunrise-sunset fast, where even smoking is prohibited.   At night, in addition to the five short prayers that Moslems say during the day, a sixth is said – the Tarawih prayer (Shiites do not say this prayer). Ramadan ends with Eid al-Fitr, a three day festival. 

The Biden administration, due to its ignorance of Islam and religion in general is panicking over an Israeli offensive in Rafah during Ramadan.  They are sure that the entire Moslem world will rise up as Israel disturbs a peaceful and revered period of the Moslem calendar defiled by Israeli arms.  However, while the idea that, in Israel, Palestinian violence increases during Ramadan has been proven wrong (see this report from last year), there is no reason why Moslems cannot wage war during this month.   The Yom Kippur War started not only on the Jewish holy day – but during Ramadan itself.  Certainly, the Egyptians and Syrians would have waited if warfare during their holy month was such an abomination.  

Hamas now is, yet again, using Western ignorance to try to force Israel to capitulate and it seems that the US is playing along.   There is a perpetual fear that some Israeli action will “ignite” the middle east but it never actually happens.    The Mideast, while totally dysfunctional is not as flammable as people think.   That is because it is religious and not ideological and political.  Yes – in Islam everything that is,  is Islam, but that doesn’t mean that politics beats worship of God.   In the West, the elites  don’t understand religion apart from politics.  That seems to be why they love Iran so much – they are religious fanatics but their fault is in their politics – and that is something that Western elites can get their hands around and since it is anti-Western, they find it hard to condemn.

While the average person in the legendary “Arab Street” is very religious, they are not necessarily very political.  And on the religious side, it is not clear at all that they will respond to fanatical calls from the Iranian Shiites – who are neither Arab nor Sunni.  Each considers the other heretics with the only thing some seem to have in common is a hatred of Israel.   But we have not seen the Sunni Arab street erupt in violence (Turkey aside) and there is little reason to fear they will arise in support of a discredited group (Hamas) funded and armed by Shiite heretics during the holiest month of the year.

Israel has wisely decided to allow Ramadan worship at the Al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount although its constant public bickering did more harm than good.   Western elites should stop assuming that everyone thinks like them.  

It seems that Biden-Blinken are panicking so much that, if rumors are true, they are demanding a cease fire in Gaza, not AFTER release of the hostages but IN ORDER to release the hostages – meaning – stop trying to destroy Hamas.  The Washington Post is even reporting that Blinken has threatened to not allow Israel to use US weapons if they attack Rafah!  This means that their fear of Ramadan means they are willing to let Hamas win the war.   

This is insulting to Moslems all around the world. 

One has to wonder if Blinken is being hoodwinked again by Hamas’s play of the “religion card” or if he just wants to see Israel defeated?