From Cairo comes more confirmation of the idea that Ramadan is seen by many Muslims as a chance to strike out in acts of “Jihad against Satan and his followers.”
“‘For militant groups, Ramadan is an opportunity for escalating violence,’ Dia’a Rashwan, an expert on radical Islam at Egypt’s Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said Sunday.”
According to Rashwan, “some Muslim militants believe they would ‘gain the highest reward’ by committing acts of jihad, or holy war, in the month during which Muslims believe their sacred book the Quran was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad.”
The article also quotes some apparent moderates, including Abdul-Moti Bayoumi of the Islamic Research Center at Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, who said: “Linking Ramadan with violence is unacceptable. Ramadan is the month of peace between the individual and himself, with people and with God.”
Bayoumi is so moderate that in 2001, he said that suicide bombings in America would be terrorism, but in Israel they’re acceptable.
Another moderate quoted was “Saleh al-Fauzan, a member of Saudi Arabia’s senior clerics committee, [who] told Saudi radio that attacks in his capital Saturday blamed on Muslim extremists violated ‘the sanctity of Ramadan.'”
That is the Saleh al-Fauzan (spelled al-Fawzan below) who is so moderate that he said “Slavery is a part of Islam. Slavery is part of jihad.” (See the post by that name below.)
This article also correctly notes that “the seventh century Battle of Badr,” in which the Muslim Prophet Muhammad himself fought, “the first battle between Muslims and non-Muslims, took place during Ramadan.” And also, “Egypt and Syria launched their 1973 war on Israel during Ramadan.” There was no accident in either case.