Secular Muslims Embrace Ramadan Fast
CBNNews.com
October 4, 2007
CBNNews.com - JERUSALEM, Israel - During the Islamic month of Ramadan, religious Muslims fast during the day, eating a light supper in the evening.
In recent years, more and more secular Muslims are opting to fast with their religious counterparts during Ramadan.
"It's good for the body to take a rest from the large amounts of food we stuff into it year round," an Arab contractor told YNet's Yehuda Litani.
According to Litani, the trend in the past 10 to 20 years is for religiously observant Muslims to convince their secular neighbors to obey the Koran by fasting and worshipping in their local mosques.
In the Israeli Arab village of Shefar'am, someone spray painted a wall with a verse from the Koran, which said that eating during the Ramadan fast was tantamount to challenging Allah.
"The fast has turned into a kind of social-fashionable trend that also attests to national affiliation," Litani wrote.
The trend among Muslims to become more religiously observant is turning up heat on Christian Arabs, who are persecuted by their Muslim neighbors.
"It's enough to glance out of the window of my house to see the masses of worshippers flocking to prayer and blocking the roads in the area," one Israeli Christian Arab told YNet.
"The majority are secular before and after the Ramadan fast," he said.
"Our response to this is that more and more of us are joining the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] and the police force. Others are secretly hording weapons to prepare for the day of order, for the eventuality that this vast Muslim energy will be directed against us," he said.
Source: YNet news service
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