Happy Ramadan!
by Ron Gold on Sep.02, 2008, under Fresh News, Religulous
Even though it just started, I hope everyone is having a remarkable Ramadan so far. I always like to spend some time during Ramadan to reflect and be thankful that I’m not Muslim. If I were Muslim, I would have to spend the entire month fasting during daylight hours, which doesn’t make it sound like one of the more festive holidays. But I’ll give credit where it’s due, and admit that Muslims show great discipline this time of year.
This Ramadan promises to be one of the most confusing ones for people in some areas of the Middle East, because there are all sorts of time zone changes:
The start of the holy month of Ramadan . . . is causing clock confusion in the Middle East. Egypt and the Palestinians are falling back an hour far earlier than usual, trying to reduce daylight hours for Muslims fasting until sunset in sweltering summer temperatures.
Politics is also adding a twist. The Palestinian militant group Hamas is ending daylight-saving time at midnight Thursday in the Gaza Strip, which it controls — while the West Bank, run by the rival Fatah faction, is waiting until midnight Sunday.
The Palestinians have traditionally changed their clocks at different times from Israel in a gesture of independence. Now for the first time, they’re directing the gesture at each other, reflecting the rival claims for power in the more than year-old split between the Palestinian territories.
And we have yet another problem that can be blamed on Hamas.
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September 2nd, 2008 on 11:29 am
Let me get this right? They just fast during the day time? And they change the time to reduce daylight hours (awake)? Sounds like a schedule I was on one summer living in the Arizona heat. If you can create your own schedule you can go to sleep at 7am wake up at 3pm and reduce the time in the heat. Then they have so little time to fast. Sounds like they’re taking the low road. I bet all their businesses change times to later during Ramadan too?
Interesting…
September 2nd, 2008 on 8:45 pm
Yeah, it seems a bit like cheating to me too, though it’s probably still tough. I wonder if Muhammad would aprove.