Posted on 09/25/2006 4:54:12 PM PDT by Coleus
Wafa Suleiman can still recall the nightly Ramadan rituals of her Middle East youth more than 25 years ago. At each sunset during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, a cannon in an Arab part of Jerusa lem would fire to announce the official sunset and inform Muslims that their daily fast could end.
"As kids we sat around the table waiting to hear that boom," said Suleiman, now 39, and a resident of Garfield. "It was a thrill listening to that cannon being fired. It was a thrill. It was the big thing for little kids to hear." For her 42-year-old husband Ahmad, who grew up in Kuwait in the 1960s and 1970s, Ramadan was different.
On most late Ramadan afternoons as a child he would play soccer with his friends, all of them Muslim. In the desert heat they'd run barefoot in the sand, sweating, effectively making their fasting harder. This weekend marks the start of Ramadan, a month chock full of religious and cultural customs that highlight the differences between Muslim life abroad and in the United States.
Sure, the basics of Ramadan -- the month Muslims believe God began revealing the Quran to the prophet Muhammad 1,400 years ago -- are the same wherever Mus lims observe it: fasting from sunrise to sundown, giving more charity, hearing the Quran recited. But there's no escaping the differences in the colors of Ramadan in the Muslim world, where it is virtually a public holiday, from the atmosphere in a country like the United States, where Muslims are a religious minority with numbers estimated between 4 million and 7 million people.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
It's a pity they don't all take their kids back there where it was so much nicer. I'll bet the smell of raw sewage enhanced the experience as well.
Wow, Garfield and Lodi were my 'stamping grounds' back in the early 60's, Luciano's, Choo Choo Club. Mainly Italian. I wonder how many muzzies are there now.
Do her children ask why in that wonderful homeland, other mommies and daddies strap high explosives to their children to slaughter innocent people for Allah? Huh, do they ma'am?
Christian kids listen for Church bells, and devout little Muslims listen for cannon blasts.
Yep, no difference there...
They would probably find greater spirituality in a Muslim country. Why don't they go back to one?
What kind of a fast is that? They don't eat during the day but get to pig out every evening, it sounds like. Sounds like a deal.
"Muslims are a religious minority with numbers estimated between 4 million and 7 million people."
4 to 7 million in this country and just a few nutcases.
... but the "kill'em'all" contingent of FReepers will be out in force to try to stir up some trouble ...
I wonder if the Christians back in Muzzle countries have fond memories of getting to practice their religions just as these hosers are doing in the US.
I mean the ones they haven't killed in the churches they haven't burned down run by the priests they haven't beaten/killed.
Maybe the media people can try to find such a warm story over there for us.
The Muslims and Latinos moved in.
Well I wish the terrorist element a friggin HAPPY RAMADAMADINGDONG!!!!!!!!!
I'm getting pretty tired of waiting to hear ANY outrage expressed by the 4 to 7 million over the "few nutcases". All I hear is what a bum deal they get here.
Here you go -
Here's the fatwa that was issued in the U.S.
http://www.cair-net.org/FatwaJuly2005.pdf
... and the one by the Saudis
http://www.saudiembassy.net/2004News/Press/PressDetail.asp?cYear=2004&cIndex=217
Or you might check here for a large list - http://www.masnet.org/takeaction.asp?id=2648
Then again, you couldn't find a muslim woman wearing a veil here either.
They believe in a muslim renaissance and the press is a willing participant.
There are more than enough apologists in the mainstream media for the meanspirited Muslim religion. Given all the acts of terrorism committed over the past century, what would you say is the predominant religion of those who committed those vile terrorist attacks? Just curious to your guess.
~ Blue Jays ~
Let's not play the little games ... what's your point ?
That it's correct to hate everyone of a religion because of what a minority of them do, regardless of the facts ?
That the world would not be a much better place if ALL Muslims thought and acted like the 4-7 Million of them who live here ?
Why would they do that?
They DO love the sound of those 'booms'!
They've all got a real fixation on explosives and gunfire.
Yep, I'm sure they do -
... and the parents, just like the German, Italian, and Japanese Americans before them, have to find some way of explaining War to them.
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