The Washington Post announces: “The Opinions section is looking for stories of how the coronavirus has affected people of all walks of life. Write to us.” The imam Omar Suleiman, “the founder and president of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research and an Islamic studies professor at Southern Methodist University,” saw an opportunity for dawah, and seized it.
The Washington Post, of course, had to be a willing partner. If someone had sent in a story about how Americans should join in the Lenten fast, or the Yom Kippur fast, would the Post have published it? What do you think?
“As American Muslims fast this Ramadan, maybe the rest of America should consider joining in,” by Omar Suleiman, Washington Post, April 30, 2020:
For Muslims, Ramadan is a time in which we fast from God’s blessings that are readily available to us and that we often take for granted.
Among the wisdoms of fasting is that if we voluntarily abstain from food and drink, we will be able to better empathize with those who are facing hardships due to poverty.
But it is not enough to merely experience hunger for the sake of your own spiritual discipline. One must also be activated toward fighting collective hunger. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said, “He is not a believer who sleeps with his stomach filled while his neighbor goes to bed hungry.” If a person cannot fast due to a permanent medical condition, they are to feed a poor person for every day they miss. And before the community gathers at the end of the month to feast on the day of Eid, each able person is obligated to provide what is called Zakat al-Fitr, a small charitable donation that is taken a few days before the Eid to ensure that the poor are able to feast as well.
Every night in Ramadan, in normal times, mosques around the world host charity representatives who fundraise between prayers. In 2004, I was sitting in my mosque in New Orleans and the representative that night was raising funds to build water wells in Somalia. He broke down in tears as he recalled the story of a woman he had met. In Islam, a person should break their fast even with a sip of water as soon as the sun sets. She asked him whether God would forgive her for not having anything to break her fast with during Ramadan. Moved by the woman’s concern to maintain faith as she fought off hunger, the speaker implored us to imagine being in her shoes. Though his emotion touched the audience, none of us could really relate to the experience.
A year later, Hurricane Katrina hit our community in New Orleans. A 61-year-old convert to Islam who lost everything that year confessed to me in a shelter with tears in his eyes that he got so hungry one night that he dug through his suitcase only to find a container of years-old lard from his cupboard to break his fast with. He laughed and recalled the Somali woman. He never thought he would be in a situation like hers….
Hugo says
They collect for “charity” – lots of that will end up with the Palestinians, replacing other spending which is then used for bomb making etc. How much of the money given eventually ends up being used to give something for our own security services in the West?
Michael Copeland says
Suleiman commends “fighting collective hunger”. He omitted to say “muslim only” hunger, as witnessed by the food aid distribution in Pakistan – withheld from Christians.
commonsense says
Bingo.
Ray Jarman says
+1 Too true.
PRCS says
Not withheld from Christians alone,
Betcha the Ahmadiyya ‘heretics’ are refused, too.
gravenimage says
Also withheld from Hindus and Sikhs.
PRCS says
True.
PRCS says
“Supporting the view of prohibition, Dr. Muzammil H. Siddiqi, former President of the Islamic Society of North America, states,
Zakah is a special charity and it should be given only to the poor and needy among Muslims. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is reported to have said: “It (Zakah) should be taken from the rich from amongst them and should be given to the poor among them.”
So, if a person gives charity to non-Muslim organizations, he is not allowed to deduct that from the amount he has to pay for the obligatory Zakah. He still has to pay full Zakah from his wealth annually according to the nisab.”
https://aboutislam.net/counseling/ask-the-scholar/acts-of-worship/can-give-zakah-non-muslims/
Muslims know that. Suleiman, ‘the learned imam’, definitely knows that.
gravenimage says
A big part of Muslim “charity”–Zakat–goes to fund violent Jihad.
PRCS says
Do the WaPo authors and editors know that?
If not, why not?
If they do, why didn’t they note that.
E T says
Bezos’s charity supports crazy Islamic extremist in the UK. Will his rag paper next ask us to support stoning?
janwog says
There are enough fast days in Christianity and Judaism without nocturne orgies. We do not need to learn from Islam.
andra says
And you will never find a newspaper asking the Muslims joining in when we are fasting. How come the papers never even think of that?
rubiconcrest says
Answer: Because no one is stepping forward with cash to have those kinds of articles written. But you are on to something. It would be a good idea to have Muslim learn what ‘fasting’ actually means. They don’t have any idea, as usual.
GOLDMANN says
✝️??”jan’
PRCS says
We must ALL learn from Muslims,and their texts,what Islam is and why it has no place in a democracy.
It is a theocracy.
Iambob says
Personally, I’m not inclined to listen to any spiritual advice from some Imam who worships Allah (who reveals himself as Satan in the Quran). I worship Jesus Christ, not the devil.
GOLDMANN says
“Iambob’, same here brother✝️???♥️ ELOHIM JEHOVAH GOD and JESUS CHRIST HIS ONLY SON , SAVIOUR amen✝️?
GreekEmpress says
I think that’s extremely offensive. Could you please find different terms to express your aversion to Ramadan?
Westman says
After working on a farm for a week without lunch, a breakfast before sunup and supper after sundown, I am also impressed – NOT! I will be doing this for 3 months and the temps will get over 100F.
What a wimpy “fast”, for a lunar month, is Ramadan. No wonder Muslims gain weight during Ramadan when they eat big before sunup and feast after sundown. Google this phrase and see how many pages of results you get: “Avoid weight gain during Ramadan”
A real fast is no food or water for two or more meals or try a few days with no food.
Save Europe says
These idiots are merely missing out on lunch and an early dinner.
I’m soooooo impressed !
Westman says
Yeah, overwhelming.
SKA says
Productiwvity in Muslim countries falls every Ramadan. Regular business comes to a halt and phone calls for unanswered as office workers often snooze during work hours and upon sunset they break the fast with two hour long potlucks. People are quarrelsome in the daytime and by the end of the month have usually gained weight. It is not the cleansing spiritual exercise that it is cracked up to be.
Sun says
+1
Lilith Wept says
David Wood has a video about Ramadan where he says they gorge in the morning, sleep all day then gorge all night. It’s not fasting, but feasting!
He’s spot on !
I will fast on Ramadan when Islamic countries build churches and embrace Christians and Jews as equal citizens with all,the rights of moslems!
Honestly, I’m inclined to eat pork and do it deliberately in front of moslems!
Westman says
Ramadan seems to be done with the same work ethic that has raised so many Muslim countries to the pinacle of scientific and industrial progess…
With the West firmly invested in superior technology, some Muslim nations, like Iran, can purchase current weaponry but cannot overcome the ineptitude of their operators who shoot down their own planes. The Quran is a terrible technical manual.
The days of successful Muslim physical conquest against Western nations are over. Only absorption by hijrah and reproduction is left as a useful weapon.
Jaladhi says
Liberals are the dhimmis of America!! Disgusting!
Carolyn Marlin says
Sir who would read Washington crab news except a kenites children????
gravenimage says
Why are you so obsessed with this tiny biblical tribe?
infidel says
Oh I’m so so moved .. so so moved at this invitation….. Ah where is my handki..? Tears are flowing like river…. Aaaah I can’t take it anymore
James Lincoln says
During the entire month of ramadan, muslims are obligated to fast, every day from dawn to sunset.
That is hardly a “fast”.
A true “fast” is brutal – I know firsthand.
I went through US Naval survival training back in the late 1980s. It lasted a full three days. Unlimited water, but the only food that you can eat was the food that you could find.
I found a few berries – along with a prickly pear cactus that I prepared and cooked on some hot wood coals.
rubiconcrest says
During a 17 day fast with only water I found after the first couple of days I was not hungry. Moderation is harder than abstinence from my experience. That’s why many people are overweight. Muslim justice, Muslim slander, Muslin peace and Muslim fasting are only found in antonyms dictionaries.
James Lincoln says
rubiconcrest,
Wow, a 17 day fast – it makes me feel like a wimp!
Bravo Zulu as they say in the Navy…
andrew mckendrick says
Strangely enough a 17 day fast is the longest fast I have done used to fast quite regularly not for any spiritual reasons , but to keep my weight under control after reading a book called Fasting The Ultimate diet. Drank about 5 litres of water a day , suffered headaches for first three days but after third lost appetite and was comfortable with it. Used to do it when i worked in middle east and once during Ramadan , used to amuse me listing to Muslims whining about being weak and hungry when all they were doing was skipping lunch.
gravenimage says
I once fasted for nine days. I’m very impressed by a 17-day fast.
PRCS says
JEST.
Cubi Point.
CogitoErgoSum says
If you think fasting will make you spiritually stronger, I say go for it. It’s purely a spiritual matter for your benefit alone. So don’t broadcast to the world that you are doing it. It’s supposed to be for your benefit, not the benefit of someone else. I don’t see the need to push Ramadan as the time for doing it either. Any time of year will do but doing it at a time coinciding with your own personal religious beliefs would seem most appropriate, such as during Lent and Advent for a Christian or Yom Kippur for a Jew. As for feeding the hungry, do that anytime it would be helpful to the hungry person, not to you and not because you think you will get a bigger reward if done at a particular time of year.
No Muzzies Here says
One can only ponder what might be the deep motivation why the American left welcomes Islam with open arms. Perhaps it has something do with with the fact that Islam, like the left, wishes to put an end to Western Civilization.
Wellington says
Yes, NMH, I do very much believe there is a connection.
PRCS says
Close, but no cigar!
Not just Western Civilization.
ALL “unbeliever’ civilizations.
China, Japan,
Wellington says
“As American Muslims fast this Ramadan, maybe the rest of America should consider joining in.”
First, I prefer the term “Muslims in America” as opposed to “American Muslims.” The reason should be obvious.
Second, there’s not a snowball’s chance in Hell that I would “join in” here. Come around 5:30 P.M. I’ll be enjoying a beer or two and chips and salsa after my run. Might have my favorite sandwich too, a BLT. Right now, I’m drinking coffee and having some yogurt. Oh yeah, zero chance I would ever go along with this “ritual” from the worst religion in man’s history.
Third, any non-Muslim in America who does “join in” here is a very foolish and ignorant human being, which is to say they are a very good and subservient dhimmi.
James Lincoln if says
Wellington,
A properly made BLT – with the finest ingredients – is an absolute delight!
Add an IPA on tap and it’s like a piece of heaven…
Westman says
Such a mouth-watering visage. Now if I could just find some real tomatoes instead of that red mealy stuff used by fast food purveyors.
Anjuli Pandavar says
0.2% and they are already calling the shots? Aren’t they supposed to only start doing that at 5% or something? At this rate, they’ll have America eating out of their hands at 2% — pun intended.
Archnemesis says
Having two feasts in a day is not fasting. Do poor people get two square meals a day after going hungry for hours ? As usual the stupid muslim logic fails, amazing how WAPO and other leftists newspapers fall for these muslim lies without questioning it. What next? An article about how Americans should consider converting to islam? Time for them to get their heads from their behinds.
Lydia Church says
The world is united against us as Christians, so this is nothing new.
There are no calls to join in with Christians in celebration of Easter, but only things like this.
There is no calling out of the persecution of Christians by muslims, such as the withholding of food by muslims from Christians in Pakistan. But rather, muslims are always painted as the victims when it is the other way around. The one thing liberals and muslims and so many others have in common is their hatred of Christians, Christianity, and ultimately Jesus Himself.
Well as outspoken as I am, I went over to the WP and left my comment there and I encourage you all to do the same!
Wellington says
Lydia, how are Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, agnostics, etc. “united against us as Christians?”
Remember, you have many non-Christians on your side with respect to what Islam intends for us all. Think broad coalition here.
libertyORdeath says
Great point Wellington, as an agnostic myself I can say that I wholeheartedly support any religion that does the world good. That obviously omits islam.
gravenimage says
Very true, Wellington and LibertyORdeath.
Carpediadem says
Lydia would prefer to leave out every single person on the planet that Muslims murder and vilify in the name of Islam.
Easier to wail about being a Christian victim rather than recognise that Islam not only targets ALL for murder, conversion or theft but that Jews are named as the worst of Islam’s enemies and are murdered daily, not only in their own homeland but attacked, vilified, harassed and assaulted worldwide by Muslims, Leftists, Christian allies of Muslims like Trocaire and the Anglican types like Stephen Sizer, especially on university campuses and in their own cities and homes and murdered with impunity in Europe.
As for Hindus, they face daily jihad from Kashmir and as polytheists are mandated by Islam to be eliminated.
But, oh, the poor Christians, who in many many cases help Islam, suck up to Islam, vilify and attack Jews for the pet Palestinians. and changed Europe to provide for Islam against their own natives and to exterminate the Jews by proxy, and who when they finally spot a threat, fear only for themselves.
PRCS says
Good post!
Unfortunately, Lydia is not alone in that mindset, here at JW.
Dan says
The muslims don’t fast during ramadan. They just change the hours they eat.
And I’ve done 3 day fasts, several times, water or juice only.
The hardest thing about it was stopping the habitual grazing.
Carpediadem says
I suppose really what Muslims do is intermittent fasting.
elee says
Beer & pork sausage on my front porch. With loud music.
revereridesagain says
Even with the shortage of toilet paper, I wouldn’t ever stoop so low as to substitute The Washington Post.
Kepha says
Dunno. I’m sorry that I don’t have a subscription to the WaPo at this time. I get tired of joining with Muslims in using my left hand.
PRCS says
Yes, Muslims in America is the appropriate definition, as their ultimate allegiance is to a ‘guy in the sky’ whom they believe exists has prohibited them from complying with man-made laws–in this case ours–which make lawful what he/she/it and ‘the last prophet’ have made unlawful.
Not fooled by Islam. says
When Christmas is allowed to be celebrated by Christians in Saudi Arabia i’ll consider recognizing Ramadan as anything other than a terrorist party.
tim gallagher says
Muslims are always trying to gain another inch for their barbaric, vile religion. Why the hell should any non-Muslim join in with anything that the enemy Muslims do? Christians have their own time for fasting in Lent, if they choose to bother with it. Muslims should butt out of non-Muslims’ far better and far more civilised way of living. They won’t do so though because the aggressive, supremacist Muslims never just live in peace and harmony, but are always pushing their loathsome agenda in all areas of life. islam has nothing of worth to offer any non-Muslim and they should leave us alone. A better idea is that they should leave our countries and go back to their wonderful Muslim societies, which is where they belong.
James Lincoln says
You certainly get this whole “islam thing”, tim.
I enjoy your posts…
tim gallagher says
Thanks for the comment, James. I believe most of the people here at Jihad Watch are wide awake to Islam’s true nature. I get frustrated that there are still so many people in our western societies, certainly in Australia, who don’t see what a menace islam is. I keep thinking that far more people should have woken up by now. I think it is not that hard to see what barbaric Islam, this throwback of an ideology, is all about. The Muslims are always trying to push their barbaric agenda. It is them or us. I believe that Islam is totally incompatible with our way of life. In Australia, for example, I don’t see Buddhists trying to shove their view of things down our throats, but, with Islam, it never stops. As I said up above, I don’t believe that Islam has anything worthwhile to offer anyone.
PRCS says
I believe that Islam is totally incompatible with our way of life
Because our way of life reflects and is governed by a system of secular, man-made laws which permit what Islamic law makes unlawful.
Muslims will never stop trying to impose theirs on the rest of us as that’s what their faith, their ‘religion’, their theocracy commands them to.
Though an uphill slog to inform our friends and neighbors about Islam’s true intent–made all the more difficult by the umma’s political and ‘journalist’ abetters–we must not stop trying either.
tim gallagher says
I agree, PRCS. I see islam as completely incompatible with our way of living life, and also, as you say, Muslims will always keep on trying to impose their crappy way of life on us. It is just an aggressive ideology. In fact, I think that pretty much the only reason most Muslims live is to spend their time trying to impose their rubbish on all of us non-Muslims. And I agree that we have to try to wake far more people up to Islam’s malicious nature. My clear preference is to keep Muslims out of all our countries and avoid all this trouble they inevitably bring.
PRCS says
Unlike other countries, Tim, the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution (the Bill of Rights) includes within the First of them the ‘Establishment Clause’:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…”
By law, we cannot and do not have a national religion. In stark contrast, Islam–a theocracy– mandates the subjugation of all mankind under the hegemony of religious law.
Though our Constitution should and currently does prevent theocratic governance, Muslims in America–as good Muslims must–keep trying to either circumvent that or to permit it by changing the law. CAIR employs an army of attorneys, and Muslims have been elected/appointed to various offices and positions here (Congresswoman Omar and Patterson New Jersey’s Police Chief as examples).
This video (see @ 11:33) makes the method clear:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RW_wLRIaUno&t=2440s
Given their inroads into our political and legal systems–despite the First Amendment–I imagine it’s easier for them to roll that Trojan Horse into yours.
tim gallagher says
PRCS, yes, I suspect that Islam would have an easier time trying to make inroads here in Australia and, of course, they are always going to be trying to impose their barbaric garbage on everyone in any country that has let this enemy migrate into their country. I truly believe that trying to impose Islam is pretty much all that Muslims do and it is all they dream about doing. The secret to solving all these problems with islam is for enough of the average people in our countries to wake the hell up to what islam is all about, like, say, the average Hungarian, and then the people will force the government to slam the door shut on any more Muslim migration and, hopefully, also try to make the Muslims in our countries feel very unwelcome. I think all our countries are seen as a soft touch, which we are, and they constantly take advantage of that decency and softness. In any democracy, if enough of the population wake up, then they can force the government there to do the right thing. It’s a bloody slow process though.
tgusa says
Why stop at fighting collective hunger? Perhaps we should go all in and commence a jihad against the infidel leftist media as well. After all, many of these infidel leftist reporters engage in extremely unislamic lifestyles so doing that would be in line with islamic orthodoxy. The infidel left is begging to be treated in accordance with islamic law. Maybe it is time for non leftist infidels to do exactly that if for no other reason but to watch their reactions.
somehistory says
“After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry (Matthew 4).”
Now **that** is true “fasting.” Jesus knew of what He spoke when speaking to others about “fasting,” and “prayer,”
moslims don’t “fast.” They just **delay** their eating and then they gorge themselves until daybreak when they again “delay” eating until it is night again and they can engage in gluttony.
And during this month, the time spent not over-indulging, they use to engage in murder on a world-wide scale to show just how unholy they truly are and to prove to the world which ‘god’ they worship.
GreekEmpress says
Does JW remove really appalling posts? I read something that to me was deeply offensive as an Eastern Rite Catholic on this thread and asked the poster to please change his language. I see the post and my reply are gone now. Just wondering.
Thanks.
gravenimage says
GreekEmpress, I don’t know what was said on this thread–I am reading this story and its comments for the first time now–but I do know that posts that call for violence, use profanity against others, or that threaten other posters here do get removed. Sometimes posts that are wildly off topic also get removed, but I think these have to be particularly egregious and usually ongoing.
If you find a really troubling post, you can bring it to Robert Spencer’s attention at the “Contact Us” box on the right-hand side of the page. That may be what happened to the post you are referring to.
GreekEmpress says
Thanks gravenimage,
I think it was a really bad attempt at humor, but yeah, it was profane. Maybe somebody else saw it, thought the same way I did and reported it.
Hope you are well and staying safe!
gravenimage says
Washington Post: “As American Muslims fast this Ramadan, maybe the rest of America should consider joining in”
……………………
As Robert Spencer notes, this rag is not going to suggest that Gentiles fast for Yom Kippur, or that non-Christians should observed Lent. But for some reason Infidels are supposed to join supremacist Muslims in “solidarity”.
Do these tools know what they are in solidarity *with*? The subjugation and murder of non-Muslims. Useful idiots.
ronyvo says
Hell NO. Fast Ramadan with the Muslims, this would be a declaration to follow Satan. Not for me, HELL NO.
Clifford Fodor says
We should consider all the acts they have done in the name of Allah since 9/11 and decide if we should ban their religion and their holy book from our nation.
PRCS says
Love to hear your plan.
Giacomo Latta says
”we will be able to better empathize with those who are facing hardships due to poverty”
How indeed touching! Apparently muslims suspect that magically, at nightfall, bountiful amounts of food descend upon the poor so they can pig out.
Will Booth says
Having lived and worked in Iraq, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, it has hard me to accept that Muslims really fast during Ramadan. It is more a matter of changing their eating habits so they do not eat from sunrise to sunset and instead eat between sunset and sunrise. It is not unusual for them to eat three to four times after sunset. In fact, they generally gain more weight during Ramadan and consume more food during the month of Ramadan than they normally do during other months. Furthermore, having read the Qu’ran and seen how some Muslims (those that advocate Sharia Law) behave (all in the name of Mohammed), there is no way I want to celebrate Ramadan. I have good friends that are Muslims and when I am working with them during Ramadan, I do not drink beverages/water and eat in their presence out of courtesy and respect.
toomanyhobbies says
I joined in for breakfast I had bacon and eggs, for lunch ham sandwich, for dinner more ham!