It is the ninth and holiest month of the Islamic calendar. It is a period of fasting and spiritual reflection. It is one of the five “pillars” of Islam. Yes! It is Ramadan. The greatest religious observance in Islam has begun.
Intended to teach patience, spirituality, humility and submissiveness to God, Muslims around the world are focusing on self-reformation, spiritual cleansing and enlightenment. Muslims will abstain from food and drink from dawn to sunset. At sunset, the family will gather the fast-breaking meal of Iftar with the eating of a date — just as Prophet Muhammad did and the call for the Maghrib prayer, which is the fourth of the five daily prayers.
Thus is the establishment of a link between themselves and God through prayer, supplication, charity, good deeds, kindness and helping others.
‘This do ye in remembrance of me.’
However, the social and political aspects of Ramadan must not be overlooked. Not only is Ramadan a time for self-reflection and sharing but the positive contributions of Muslims to American society in acts of service and giving back to the community should not go by unnoticed.
It is here that the meaning of ‘umma’ or community, so central to Islam in its ideal form is seen. While fasting redirects the heart away from worldly activities, cleanses the inner soul and frees it from harm, the practice of self-discipline, self-control, sacrifice, and empathy for those who are less fortunate encourage actions of generosity and charity.
Iftar brings fellowship with families, friends and surrounding communities together and the unifying aspects of Islam are clearly seen. Ramadan imposes a truce on all hostilities in the same way that lent is to Christians, Yum Kippur is to Jews or thanksgiving is to Americans.
At this opportune time when “extremist” or “discriminatory” views of Islam have dominated the airwaves in the past weeks and manipulated and biased feelings by the media present a negative image about Islam, Ramadan shows that Islam is a peaceful and fair religion that most often does not correspond to the media’s reports.
While the anti-Muslim sentiments of Anders Breivik in Norway still resounds in everyone’s ears, leading anti-Muslim nationalist along with American right-wing, and anti-Muslim writers have not denounced Breivik’s acts and ideas, and are continuing to use Islam as a part of an ideological label.
According to Professor Edward Said, ‘Islam is peculiarly traumatic news in the West’… Islam has licensed not only patent inaccuracy, but also expressions of unrestrained ethnocentrism, cultural, and even racial hatred, deep yet paradoxically free-floating hostility …’
In this holy month of peace and renewal, may westerners and others learn the truth about Islam and find out that these negative stereotypes are incorrect. May the media, the geopolitical strategists, those vying for political office and the academic expert understand it, and report about it in a positive manner thus celebrating the brave American Muslims who are helping to shape the future of America with mutual respect and cooperation among all the citizens of the world.
When historically constituted Islam promotes the practices of equality and inclusion in a democratic cultural order and is the best example of an equal gender society. It is hoped that Muslims will be able to continue their charitable obligations not just during Ramadan, but throughout the year. Muslims in America and around the world should be congratulated on this blessed achievement.
Rebecca Theodore was born on the north coast of Dominica and is now based in Atlanta GA. She writes on national security and political issues and can be reached at [email protected]
We have done nothing and do not plan to do anything. We are Christians.
We belong to a religion which was established by Our Lord Jesus Christ, our King and Savior of the world, approximately 2000 years ago.
Our Lord Jesus Christ said: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life/Light. Anyone who believes in Me will be saved and have everlasting life.”
SO THIS IS CHRISTMAS AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?
Praise be to God The Father, God The Son and God The Holy Spirit.
In the Name of Allah, The Beneficient, The Merciful.
As salam alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh my dear brothers and sisters, Ramadhan Mubarak.
My dear sister Rebecca, this is a well written article alhamdu lilah. May Allah swt reward you tremendously for it. Ameen. If you are not muslim then may Allah swt guide your heart to this wonderful path. Ameen.
To the haters of Islam, or those who claim “constructive” criticism of Islam, the prophet Muhammad peace be upon him said, “When someone is rude to you (especially while one is fasting) respond to him, ‘I am fasting, I am fasting.'”
That’s nonsence.
wow….what a smart baby…he is lost at the cameras instead of praying..
Ramadan Mubarak to my fellow muslims in Dominica.
Ramadan Mubarak to you as well sister muslimgirl. May Allah swt accept this fasting from us. Ameen.
It is hard to conceive how a religion that promises so much good can in this 21st century be responsible for such unspeakable acts like what they did to the 20,000 Lost Boys of Sudan and their relatives just because they were Christains.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4698532.
Sounds to me like what happened during slavery when tribe leaders were Muslimized and got rid of the heretics among them by selling them into slavery.
The Muslims will have a hard time fixing their image.
All religion are responsible for acts of violence, inhumanity and destruction. So that should tell you something.
@ Roseau
This is persecution. They continue to do so also in Africa. Christians are also murdered in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
This should stir up the government and make other Canadians pleased that finally, their voice is being heard and that the government will do something about it.
They go into their homes while they are asleep and pull them out and murder them.
I am happy and thank God that I do not belong to such a religion.
The only consolation is that God is patient. In time they will all bear their eternal consequences.
This is why the people of Western countries are not pleased that they were allowed to migrate, infiltrate into their countries and they do not assimilate in society. They want to live as though they are in their countries. I do not know why they migrate in the first place.
Sometime ago there were a set of them in New York who lambasted President Obama and making some rotten statements about him and America. A lot of them are not employed and they are living off the avails of taxpayers’ money. Talk of bold and ungrateful people.
Some of them came by planeloads and boatloads. Refugees that they are, they also demanded what food they should be fed while awaiting the immigration authorities to process them. Our tax dollars pay for that.
Last year 500 Sri Lankans traveled in a boat and arrived in Vancouver. We did hear that there was another one on the way. How many of those people can Canada accommodate and in the hundreds all at once? They think that Canada owes them asylum and something; something more. They have to be fed and housed and this is not all.
Some of them may never work in this country and will live here at taxpayers’ expense. People are angry. I am no exception.
Today the government is looking for some of them. Some of those people are not legitimate refugees. Among them are also criminals – war criminals.
The government seized the boat and held the captain. I suppose that he was deported.
There are some bleeding hearts as their own people who reside in Canada who encouraged them. For a while we hear a lot and then we hear nothing more. That is the news alright.
The Canadian government has said that if any more arrive in Canadian waters they will be sent back. So far no more has shown up.
The Toronto School Board allows the students to pray in the cafeteria.
Christmas is not mentioned in those schools with the Our Father taken out of those schools. Some people demonstrated against it.
Now they want their food sold in the cafeterias. It is a demanding and aggressive so-called people and religion.
Our government and educators are so stupid that they succumb to their aggressive demands.
The women walk around with their faces covered and took the government to Court, at taxpayers’ expense, to fight it.
The men who wear turbans defy employers to wear their turbans and also shield (a sort of weapon – whatever it is called). They also appeal to the Courts at taxpayers’ expense.
They claim that they will dominate the world, calling us Christians infidels. They are so wrong and out-of-place. If anyone calls me that to my face I will defend my faith/religion.
I came across a new TV Canadian Channel which addresses these issues and the matter of immigration, more so about those people and their aggressiveness and demands.
I love that Channel and will continue to listen to it when I can. They are speaking my language, so-to-speak.
Their image is already tarnished for good. People do not trust them.
Canadians feel that they are outsiders in their own land. So much more could be stated about that.
“Ramadan shows that Islam is a peaceful and fair religion that most often does not correspond to the media’s report”. He he he hehe…owye woye woye! What a bunch of BS if you dare ask me. I have never met or seen a terrorist that was not a muslim……he he he he.
Many terrorists are not Muslims….Just look at that evil man mentioned in the article, Breivik, who committed those murders in Oslo.
One of the common tactics: portray Muslims doing something involving “unity” or “equality” or “goodwill” and then claim that Islam consists of nothing but unity and equality and goodwill and that people who criticize Islam are stupid, evil, and racist. This tactic is relatively simple and can be applied to many belief systems. You choose a happy-sounding verse or practice and say, hey, look how nice this, how can you say my religion is bad, we do this nice thing, you’re just a racist idiot if you disagree. Well, the problem is that you’re ignoring what is not nice in the belief system. The mere fact that you can be put to death in Islam for apostasy–leaving the faith–is all I need to present. As for “gender equality,” the burqa and the obsessively masculinist vision of the afterlife speak for themselves.
I should add, though, that the actions of that savage madman Breivik in Oslo are precisely the wrong response. Violence is not the answer. Islam can be a great threat in the wrong hands, but in the hands of those who ignore the “bad” passages of the Quran and hadiths, it can function fairly similarly to Christianity in the hands of a Christian ignoring much of the Old Testament. Turkey is a good example of this.
So, while it is false to represent Islam as peaceful because of Ramadan, blind anti-Muslim sentiment is wrong, as well. Although cherry-picking “nice” passages from belief systems is still dangerous, it is clearly less so than fundamentalism, which is certainly the most dangerous manifestation of religious belief today. Education and civilized debates are the ideal key to stamping out fundamentalism, while acknowledging that the worst fundamentalists often wish to stamp those same educators out….
The prophet Muhammad and all the prophets who were sent to mankind, they were the moral doctors of society, they debated with the agnostics, atheists and pagans thus they were stamped out.
The Holy Quran has the answers for people who hold your views. We see Mathematics professors and distinguish scientists who have looked into the Holy Quran, they see its profound wisdoms.
Secularism has done nothing but destruction of man. Look at Dominica for example, 1:2 marriages end up in divorce, why? Lack of spirituality and morals. Everything is so vain and materialistic.
On the contrary, Muslim_always: too many hardcore Muslim societies have made it very difficult for scientists and mathematicians to practice out of their fear that such practices will turn persons away from their teachings. This is ironic, since, as you must know, Muslims were once among the world’s greatest scientists and thinkers. During the Dark Ages, it was the work of Muslim thinkers and philosophers who preserved many Greek and Roman texts by commenting on them and writing treatises of their own based off them. But this golden age of science and philosophy was short-lived, unfortunately, and now many Muslim societies are crippled by resistance to allowing their people to study such subjects. Even history, I have seen in the news before, has been condemned as a study for Muslims in certain Muslim-only schools.
As to the claim that secularism has done no good: au contraire. You speak of a lack of morals; are you, following a book that urges for the virtual slavery of women and the terrorizing of non-Muslim society and death for apostates–with all that and more, are you more moral than a secularist, who does not have any such evil text forcing him to do such evil things or face eternal torture? I know your answer already, but I’m sure you know mine, as well. I would much prefer a moral code that has been discussed in a civilized manner over time, refined, added to, removed from, and commented on by civilized people. Such a code would has as one of its main tenets that excellent rule of thought by Confucius, created long before any talk of Yahweh, Jesus, or Allah existed: do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Still, as I said above, as long as no one infringes upon one another, as long as there are no attacks upon anyone, then coexistance is possible.
do they pray and fast foor their muslim brothers and sisters to stop killing each other,,doesnt their ALLAH see the need to console his people muslims r too wicked to each other
@ baby?
Who is Allah? What religion?
Surely, you are not referring to our Good, Holy, Pure and Peaceful God. I hope not.
He is Our Almighty Father. The only religion which God recognizes is the Christian religion, the One which believes in His One and Only Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Those who do not believe in Him and who do not worship Him will not be saved. I do hope you know what is contained in Holy Scriptures of the Holy Bible which is the Word of the Lord.
We are all the same. We pray to our God at times when it is required and after we go about doing the same things. I hope the world can see at what young age the children are being trained in their “religion”. Muslims may be considered religious persons but within every gropu or society their are always a few bad apples that change the whole meaning of everything that we truly believe