Signs of the Times - Bombing on Ramadan
October 2001
Letters to the Editor: Bombing on Ramadan
Search for:


Home

George,

My older daughter's birthday is Nov. 17. This year that could be a very important date. It is the start of Ramadan, the month-long Muslim religious holiday similar to the Christian Lent but more important to its adherents.

How the US led anti-terrorist coalition treats Muslims during Ramadan could have a drastic impact on the future of the planet.

If we are to be accepted by Muslims as being against only terrorists and not against all Muslims, we must honor Ramadan by announcing a pause in the bombs and rockets.

From the start the shrub has been saying this is a war against terrorists, not against Muslims, that Americans respect the religion. Newspapers in the Arab world quoted in World Press Review clearly show that much of the Muslim world believes that, but more does not. The substantial part of that world thinks we're out to annihilate them.

The answer will be clear to all Muslims during the month commencing Nov. 17. From the most block-head cleric, to the sand breath 15-year-old with a gun, to the college educated Muslim legally living outside his homeland, all recognize that Ramadan is when the US must put up or shut up about respect.

We can honor Ramadan or not. Either way will be a world-shaking public relations coup. A coup for us if we honor it; a coup for the terrorists if we do not. In one gesture the US will earn or will lose the respect of a billion people.

The right choice will capture the Muslim heart and significantly shorten the war . The wrong choice will turn the world's fastest growing faith against us and make this war a permanent part of the planet's future.

It would be appropriate to hear from Al Gore on Ramadan. What would he do in shrub's place? It could be that a few thousand stolen Florida votes will be responsible for the first world-wide religious war in history.

This is also an appropriate place for a petition campaign. Shrub's administration will probably make the wrong choice. A few million American names on petitions asking the government to honor Ramadan would at least demonstrate to the Arab world that the US is not a monolithic enemy, and that missions against civilians can only be counter-productive.

Rey Barry (electronic mail, October 29, 2001).

"Pressure on the United States to radically curtail the war in Afghanistan grew yesterday as Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, asked for a bombing pause during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan that begins next month. Britain's defense secretary said a puse is under serious consideration.

In the clearest signal to date of Pakistan's unease over the U.S.-led campaign, Musharraf told Army Gen. Thommy R. Franks, the U.S. commander overseeing the war, in Islamabad that the Pentagon needed to rethink its bombing campaign after 22 days of airstrikes. Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in the campaign, cited civilian casualties and a lack of tangible success, according to Pakistani officials.

But Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, briefing reporters at the Pentagon, reiterated his opposition to a bombing pause during Ramadan, saying that Afghanistan's ruling Raliban militia and the al Qaeda terrorist network it shelters 'are unlikely to take holiday.'

'Given the fact that they have killed thousands of Emericans and people from 50 to 60 other countries, and given the fact that they have sworn to continue such attacks, we have an obligation to defend the American people,' Rumsfeld said. He noted that 'there have been any number of conflicts between Muslim countries, and between Muslim countries and non-Muslim countries, throughout Ramadan...'" (Vernon Loeb and Thomas E. Ricks, The Washington Post, October 30, 2001).


Comments? Questions? Write me at george@loper.org.