Posted on 07/11/2013 3:53:31 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Swedish Muslims north of the Arctic circle have long waited for and feared this summer. When the sun never sets, they have pondered how to observe Ramadan, when devout Muslims fast from sun up to sun down for a month.
"Kiruna is as high up as you get in Sweden, the sun never sets during this month," Ali Melhem, 45, who has lived in Kiruna for 24 years told The Local. As the fasting month is set by the moon, Ramadan usually moves about 10 days forward in the calender each year, which means this is the first summer it has proved a 24-hour dilemma for Melhem.
"When I first moved here, Ramadan was in the spring."
In attendance for the day when Ramadan would run smack bang into the near three-month stretch of never-ending sun, Shia Muslim Melhem has not remained idle in doing his research.
"My wife and I couldn't make that choice, so we've consulted mullahs from Iraq to Iran. They say we can wait to fast until the autumn," he said, adding that some Sunni Muslims in Kiruna have chosen to break their fast when the sun sets over Mecca as a solution to their dilemma. Ramadan this years started on July 9th and should last until August 7th.
"I did check if I could follow the sun times in a nearby Swedish town like Luleå or Umeå, but even fasting for 23 hours a day is a bit difficult," father-of-three Melhem said.
There is still no consensus, however, on how Muslims living in Scandinavia should observe Ramadan without jeopardizing their health, according to Omar Mustafa, president of the Islamic League in Sweden.
"Several imams and organisations have different opinions. It is up to each individual to decide, but it is not meant that you should fast around the clock. Islam provides many options," Mustafa told the media.
Ramadan is an annual observance by Muslims who are obliged to fast from dawn to sunset for a month often in summer. Many abstain from sexual relations as well as food, drink and smoking. Islam does allow some exceptions from participating in the annual fast such as pregnant women, diabetics and the elderly.
In nearby Finland it is also a problem with up to 21 hours of daylight during the summer. A compromise has been suggested by Imam Abdul Mannan, president of the Islan Society of Northern Finland.
"The Egyptian scholars say that if the fasting days are long - more than 18 hours - then you can follow the Mecca time or Medina time, or the nearest Muslim country time," he said.
"The other point of view from the Saudi scholars says whatever the day is - long or short - you have to follow the local time."
For your amusement.
Don’t eat the yellow snow.
When ramadan occurs in the winter I bet they don’t complain about lack of daylight. No daylight no fast!
Just go somewhere else.
They could declare it to be the time the second tower fell.
Something I’ve wondered about is how do US schools that in recent years bend over backwards to accommodate Muslim holidays handle the summer? Common sense would dictate that they’re just ASOL but that doesn’t rule anymore. Every year their holidays are two weeks earlier than the previous year on our calendar meaning that the the holidays will eventually hit the school year again. But will they try to get Muslim holiday time during the school year anyway in the interest of “fairness?”
Ramadan and Hadj don’t start on the same days throughout the Muslim world or even in the rest of the Middle East. After six years in Saudi I just assumed that all Muslim countries were on the same holiday schedule driven by when they officially begin in Mecca. Found out later that I was wrong.
Nah, just check out the stories of the contortions that they went into when being on the SST...
Dumb asses................
Devout devotees!!!
Yeah - the Shia Ayatollahs make it a point to start different than the Sunnis - and everything is based on the Moon - which is directly linked back to the old Egyptian Moon god named Allah...trying to see who’s in charge of the massive cult...like everything - they can’t agree on nothing!
http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/moongod.htm
Archaeologists have uncovered temples to the Moon-god throughout the Middle East. From the mountains of Turkey to the banks of the Nile, the most wide-spread religion of the ancient world was the worship of the Moon-god. In the first literate civilization, the Sumerians have left us thousands of clay tablets in which they described their religious beliefs. As demonstrated by Sjoberg and Hall, the ancient Sumerians worshipped a Moon-god who was called many different names. The most popular names were Nanna, Suen and Asimbabbar. His symbol was the crescent moon. Given the amount of artifacts concerning the worship of this Moon-god, it is clear that this was the dominant religion in Sumeria. The cult of the Moon-god was the most popular religion throughout ancient Mesopotamia.
Hey! I think they should be strict! At their latitude, the sun comes up around mid-February, when they should start fasting. Then it sets mid-October, when they can end their fast. Problem solved! Allah would be pleased!
why can;t they go to where they can do this instead of living in places and looking for excuses to do what they follow?
Like I give a smelly Obama.
Then they wouldn’t be able spread to far away places like Sweden.
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