http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=101245&d=16&m=9&y=2007
Sunday, 16, September, 2007 (04, Ramadhan, 1428)
A Christian Arab Perspective on Ramadan Fasting
Ray Hanania, Arab News
Christian Arabs in the Middle East are much like Jews in the
West. When the official holidays roll around, we are both pretty much pushed
off to the side and forced to sing along with everyone else. Jews in America
experience this feeling of being left out during the Christian holidays that
bring life in the country to a grinding halt, and so are Christian Arabs who
sit back and watch as the Arab world turns its focus on Islam.
For Jews in America, it was very difficult to be in a public
school and not be told that Jesus was born on Christmas Day, or sing Christmas
carols at the school holiday play, although I imagine it is like that for Arabs
who live in Israel. Many American businesses shut down on Christmas and even
Good Friday which precedes Easter, while most others stay open but spend their
time relaxing as the Christian world around them comes to a grinding halt. Some
Jews even put up "Christmas Trees" to help their children avoid the feeling of
being left out.
It's much like that in the Middle East for Arab Christians
where Islam is the dominant religion. The Christian presence, which began in
the Holy Land centuries before Prophet Muhammad took up the call, has been
dwindling significantly as a result of growing political turmoil, increasing
Islamic activism and subtle anti-Christian pressures forbidden from being
discussed openly and never discussed in the Arab world media. What once was the
"Arab world", a secular place where everyone no matter the size of your
constituency were equals, is today the Islamic world, celebrating a religion in
which, ironically, Arabs are becoming more and more the disappearing minority.
The monthlong annual observance of one of Islam's most
important religious duties, Ramadan, began in the United States on Thursday,
Sept. 12, when someone in the religious community declared they saw the first
light of the crescent moon.
As in Christianity and Judaism, the Islamic calendar is
marked by the cycles of the moon, and the observance begins about 11 days
earlier each year, unlike Christmas which is marked by a specific date, Dec.
25. During Ramadan, Muslims will abstain from food, drink and other
indulgences, and they are inspired to "renew their devotion to God."
Just as the Christian world shuts down around Jews in the
West, the Arab world shuts down around Christians in the Middle East.
Although Islam, like Christianity, is based on a principle of
tolerance of others, not all Muslims will tolerate Christians who engage in
public displays of celebration during this month.
Muslims frown on any public displays or celebrations during
their religious observance, by themselves or by others, including Christian
Arabs.
I spent Ramadan in Bethlehem in 2004 and learned that
Christians are forced to observe Ramadan, too.
The Christians spent the entire time complaining about the
secular impact of Ramadan. Christian-owned restaurants in this city that was
once the birthplace of the Christian religion, are forced to close their
outdoor patios and temper events such as Christian weddings, parties or large
meetings. If you do stop at a restaurant and insist on eating outside, Muslims
who walk by will frown and one even walked up to me to say in Arabic that I was
being disrespectful for eating in front of Muslims who were in the midst of a
difficult fast. Christian life comes to a grinding halt throughout the occupied
territories, and in much of the Arab world where Islam has become the focus not
only of the governments that have declared it their official religions, but in
the societies, too.
But it's no different even here in "Christian America," where
the post-Sept. 11, 2001 terrorism attacks have forced Americans to open their
eyes and minds more to learn about the 19 Arab Muslim hijackers who
commandeered four commercial jets killing 3,000 innocent American civilians in
the nation's most brazen terrorist act.
This week the Chicago Tribune, the Midwest's largest
newspaper, began a five-day series of full-page articles on the meaning of
Ramadan. In one, an Arab girl was spotlighted as a Muslim, with scant mention
of her Arab heritage.
The word "Arab" has a bad connotation, these days, not only
in the mainstream media, but among the Arabs themselves who prefer to refer to
themselves now as "Muslims." Ironically, the majority of Arabs in America are
not Muslim, but Christian, though there are far more Muslims, more than one
billion, in the world.
There is no thought to "Arabs" at all and as an Arab and a
Christian, I feel the double whammy of being cast aside not only by Muslims,
but also by Americans who continue to remain naïve about the fundamentals of
the Middle East and everything related to the "war on terrorism," frequently
mistake me for a Muslim. One Christian American once told me, "I can't believe
you abandoned your Christian faith to become an Arab."
So this month, as all Arab-American activities come to a halt
until the sun sets and the iftar, breaking of the Ramadan fast is allowed, I
will relax, read and quietly enjoy my own faith knowing that in this world, I
am a vanishing breed.
- Ray Hanania is an award winning journalist and author.
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