Ramadan: A Time to Reminisce Over Bloodshed and Slavery

Raymond Ibrahim is a Coptic Christian, whose ancestors experienced a genocide in  Egypt : Ramadan—once a curiosity limited to the Muslim world but now a “celebrated” feature of the : West—is upon us.  For those Americans still unfamiliar with Islam’s holy month, a recent DC News article offers a primer:

Ramadan is considered the holiest month of the year for Muslims. About 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide observe the holiday in some form. Muslims use Ramadan as an opportunity to self-reflect and become more spiritual. Muslims will fast from dawn until sunset and are not allowed to eat or drink anything, including water, during daylight hours….Ramadan takes place on the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, which is based on a 12-month lunar year of approximately 354 days. This year, Ramadan begins the evening of March 22nd and ends the evening of April 20th.

Although the article claims to present “everything you need to know about Islam’s holiest month,” it apparently forgot to mention that one aspect of especial importance to non-Muslims:  Ramadan is a time for jihad against non-Muslims—“infidels”; Ramadan is when some of Islam’s most violent conquests took place; and Ramadan is when modern-day Muslims are supposed to reminisce over and seek to emulate these conquests.

Indeed, every single Ramadan features an assortment of Islamic authorities, personages, and/or institutes reminding Muslims to take pride in and celebrate various historic battles between Muslims and non-Muslims (as in this hour long televised special). Among other things, such victories are meant to demonstrate the power, and thus truth, of Islam.

This alone should underscore Islam’s innate militancy in comparison to other religions. It further suggests that Islam is a worldly religion, one that takes pride and finds validation in something as corporeal and temporal as victory in warfare (with all the attendant collection of booty and slaves that entails).

Read it all here.........