Beirut (AsiaNews) – In Pakistan and the Philippines military action has been officially suspended; in Bahrain begging has been banned; and across the region the MTV Arabia network has replaced music videos with documentaries for the holy month of Ramadan. Most of all the ninth month in the Islamic calendar has come this year with high region-wide food prices—a burden complicating the usual practice of families of buying special food and other Ramadan treats.
Throughout the Muslim world Ramadan began today when religious authorities in every country sighted the new moon, marking the start of the lunar month. For many however the sighting was done yesterday, a difference which often divides Islamic nations over exactly when to begin the festival.
During this time of celebrations, which in places like Istanbul include folk dances and performances by poets and famed local and foreign musicians, strict fasting (no food or water) from dawn to dusk and no sex are mandatory. By the same token, the faithful are expected to devote more time to prayers.
Whilst in supposedly secular Turkey Ali Bardakoglu, head of the Department of Religious Affairs, can say that "it is quite nefarious if someone faces pressure for observing or not observing fast,” in Saudi Arabia the ban on drinking, eating and smoking in public is absolute. Non Muslims are not spared this duty and foreign workers who violate the ban can be expelled.
Despite the ban, inflation is what concerns most in the Islamic world.
In wealthy Saudi Arabia the annual inflation rate surged to 11.1 per cent with food and beverage costs jumping 16 percent in July alone.
In Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, prices for essential items like eggs, meat and cooking oil have surged by as much as 25 per cent in one week.
In some parts of Afghanistan, the price of staple wheat doubled in a year.
Some governments like those of Pakistan and the Gulf States have announced aid for needy families. But papers across the Islamic world are full of stories of people on hard times like the 25-year-old Afghan cabbie Khurshal who cannot make ends meet with US$ 150 a month and has had to take out a loan to pay for this month’s bill.
In some countries there are other concerns. In the cities of Pakistan, thousands of soldiers with metal detectors have been deployed around mosques, which are usually very crowded at this time of the year, in order to prevent possible suicide attacks by the Taliban who, through their spokesman Muslim Khan, warned they would not observe any truce the army might announce.
Similar concerns in Afghanistan, Algeria and Iraq, where the sacred month has often been marred by especially bloody attacks.
Despite everything Ramadan remains a time of celebration and prayer as evinced by the messages Muslim rulers issue at this time of the year. In King Abdullah’s address for instance the Saudi monarch urged people to work in order to realise a true dialogue between Muslims and other cultures so as to make sacred the concepts of peace and humanity. (PD)