FOR the past week I have been dogged by a skinny, chain-smoking Moroccan man who has been gazing at me, cowed-eyed, from atop a tall bar stool in a local bar. I think he may have fallen in love with me.
Last night I allowed myself to be drawn into conversation with him, and learned that he was not a happy chap. He seems to be having some trouble sticking to the rules of the “holy” month of Ramadan.
He told me he was having great difficulty not smoking between dawn and sundown, and misses the occasional beer during these long, long hot days on the Costa Blanca.
So he makes up for it by getting caned from 10pm to 4pm, nipping outdoors between sips to smoke like a vintage Vespa. It was doing his health in, he complained – and looked alarmed when I said I could not understand why anyone would want to buy into a religion as insane as Islam … or any religion at all, for that matter.
I got the stock “I was born a Muslim” reply. I pointed out that he could not be much of a Muslim if he regularly necked alcohol. This he brushed aside, saying his brand of Islam permitted booze – but not in daylight during Ramadan.
Well, that was news to me, and I demanded to know just which brand of Islam permitted alcohol. At this point he made his excuses and left to go and ignite another Fortuna. I guess I shall never get a satisfactory answer … nor, I imagine, will I have to endure his adoring glances in the future. Which is great as he is SO not my type.
Ramadan fuehrer Ahmad Kanedi
On my return from the pub more Ramadan madness manifested itself when I opened two links sent to me by one of our most enthusiastic net detectives, BarrieJohn.
The first was a report that a total of 25 people were arrested and sent to jail in Pakistan’s central Punjab province for eating in public during the “holy month”.
The miscreats were arrested in Faisalabad city this week for violating the Ehteram-e-Ramadan Ordinance, which was introduced during the regime of late military ruler Zia-ul-Haq.
The offenders were put behind bars for 72 hours.
The second report, from Sumatra reveals that police in Bengkulu city have arrested four civil servants, including one non-Muslim, for not fasting during Ramadan.
The four were found eating in a restaurant during a sweep by authorities on Thursday.
The sweep was carried out on the orders of Bengkulu Mayor Ahmad Kanedi, who said on the first day of Ramadan that city employees who did not fast during the holy month would be dismissed from their jobs.
He also offered a Rp 1 million ($118) bounty to citizens to help catch administration officials eating in public.
Bengkulu Police head Khairul Saleh said that police would continue their sweeps throughout the holy month to discourage civil servants from eating during the day.
Civil servants were supposed to serve as an example during Ramadan, he said, even if they were not Muslim.
Is there no limit to the lunacy that is Islam?
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
August 7th, 2011 at 2:35 pm
The answer to your question is “NO”. But you already knew that.
August 7th, 2011 at 3:22 pm
What is clear is the reluctance of Muslims, even those who seem to espouse their dotty religion, to follow its tenets. The conclusion must be that they don’t believe and need to be spied on, threatened and punished to make them pretend. But take a step back. What about the enforcers? They are no more likely to believe than those they are forcing to pretend.
In the modern age how many can really believe what their religions teach? How many clergy are really atheists or agnostics? I read that a new definition of secularism is being developed and suggested by philosophers. This would allow a spiritual sense, a feeling for the transcendent, that would not require a belief in god. The skids really are under the believers and particularly the fundamentalists.
What, above all, they must not allow themselves to do is to think and enquire. That way leads to freedom and the funeral pyres of their faiths. These pyres already burning.
August 7th, 2011 at 3:38 pm
I think this fasting for a month lark is actually a good idea. Andy Choudary could do with losing a bit of weight, the fat bastard.
August 7th, 2011 at 4:40 pm
I cannot help but be amused and at the same time saddened at how close these dodgers get to the point, and then it slips right through their fingers. Reminds me of when I was a child and I gave up sweets for Lent. It wasn’t hard, because I was never a big sweet eater anyway, but my mum felt bad for me and insisted that I should take some on weekends (which soon were expanded to include Fridays), and special occasions, and a little bit at lunch wouldn’t hurt… I observed everyone around me rationalising why they should be allowed to get away with not quite living up to their obligations (fish on Friday was a good one – no reason you couldn’t have a steak pie on a ‘special occasion’ that happened to fall on Friday). In my childhood logic I took this to mean one of either two things – I was the best Catholic ever and would soon be Pope, or these rules were never really that important and seemed kind of arbitrary markers people clung to just to demonstrate that they were part of that community.
August 7th, 2011 at 4:51 pm
Someone alluded to this little problem recently:
http://www.islam-qa.com/en/ref/833
“Amused and at the same time saddened”, like JMW!
(From your friendly local net detective.)
August 7th, 2011 at 6:55 pm
JohnMWhite said:
(fish on Friday was a good one)
…I remember those days, what was that all about?
I remember eating a hamburger at a fast food restaurant one Friday when older and having a panic attack for about 3 sec. when I remembered it was Friday, until I remembered the pope changed that law and ate the rest of my burger in calm.
I’m very much of aware of the brainwashing religion installs in children and how hard it is to break. The more I read about science and history the less I believed their bullcrap…it now makes since why Adam and Eve were punished for eating from the tree of knowledge. The more one is educated the less likely they are to believe their nonsense, and that means the perverted priests would have to go out and get a real job.
August 7th, 2011 at 7:17 pm
Sorry, people – completely off thread, I know. But I get so blood-boilingly angry about these things. (Calm. Calm. Calm.)
Have you guys and gals come across this story about yet another xitan nutter who clearly doesn’t care one jot about anybody else as long as everything conforms to the iron-age rule book she holds so dear?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/hea.....users.html
How long before the loathsome CLC get involved?
August 7th, 2011 at 8:14 pm
@remigius. Many Muslims actually put on weight during Ramadan because they stuff themselves during the hours of darkness with special, highly calorific food.
My son, who is married to a Muslim, is thinking of arranging a family holiday in northern Norway when Ramadan has moved forward to June.
August 7th, 2011 at 9:25 pm
I always get Ramadan confused with Romulan.
August 7th, 2011 at 10:04 pm
Neuseline. Surely adopting a high calorie intake during a fast makes rather a mockery of the fast. But what do I know.
I’m currently reading the Hadith, trying to figure out how all this nonsense started. Just got to the bit where the Prophet Mohammed spends a month living it up at the Ramada Inn…
August 8th, 2011 at 7:26 am
“Civil servants were supposed to serve as an example during Ramadan, he said, even if they were not Muslim.”
Just because they don’t believe in god’s rules is no excuse not to follow them! And
Civildhimmi servants must serve a good example of humility, obedience and Uncle Tomism.It is always so in a theocracy, atheists are incinerated – literally.
August 8th, 2011 at 7:53 am
How about this? There have been several similar events recently, with many people arrested. Evidently you are not allowed to enjoy yourself if you are a Muslim!
http://news.yahoo.com/iran-arr.....44791.html
August 8th, 2011 at 8:03 am
These are the words of Ayatollah Khomeini:
“Allah did not create man so that he could have fun. The aim of
creation was for mankind to be put to the test through hardship and
prayer. An Islamic regime must be serious in every field. There are no
jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam.
There can be no fun and joy in whatever is serious.”
August 8th, 2011 at 8:59 am
“Is there no limit to the lunacy that is Islam?”
The short answer to the, no doubt, rhetorical question is no; however, it must be said that Islam has no corner on the market of lunacy, for any, and all, religions are ludicrous.
In Reason,
Madison
http://alwaysquestionauthority.wordpress.com/
August 8th, 2011 at 10:55 am
Anyway, what sort of religion is it that has a calendar that isn’t even a proper calendar? Did Mo – or whoever made the rules up – want people to fast when the weather was at its hottest or at its coolest? Or was the first Ramadan a sly cheat, being held at a time of year when the Arabs would kip in their tents all through the hot daytime anyway?
August 8th, 2011 at 11:18 am
AgentCormac: Is this bible spouting nutter safe to be working in a hospital. I suppose, following her bible, she is in favour of slavery. She will just love being the centre of attention as a god fearing christian. She should be sacked.
August 8th, 2011 at 12:33 pm
I was told I was Jewish from an early age, not a religious family in a the true sense.although I did get confused when I went to a convent in Golders Green. On fast day I would see so many eating thinking they weren’t being observed, and when on there way to praying, would grab a bite to eat in the safety of their cars. Although you were not supposed to drive on the Sabbath or fasting days,although I could not tell you when any of these holidays are.
I love my pork, my bacon sandwiches are my favourite meal.
August 8th, 2011 at 1:24 pm
Broga
Remember whining xtian, Colin Atkinson (he of the banned-from-displaying-a-cross-in-the-company-van story)?
Seems things haven’t been going too well for poor old victimised Col lately. Quel dommage!
http://www.christianconcern.co.....-suspended
August 8th, 2011 at 1:45 pm
And here’s the NSS’s take on the whole bleating martyrs thing.
http://www.secularism.org.uk/h.....risti.html
August 8th, 2011 at 2:40 pm
AgentCormac: Thanks. Seems as if Colin, cross apart, isn’t the most popular of workers. As for the trousers – what did god have in mind. What did men or women wear in ancient times. Of course, this isn’t really what it is about. They want to push their religion so that they get noticed. They are certainly highly selective about the bits of the bible they choose to follow.
As for the fasting, I remember reading about a nun who was so blessed that she did not need to eat. Then she was spotted scuttling into the nunnery kitchen at night. Or that stigmata man who was seen scratching his own hands to make them bleed.
I guess these fundamentalist christians are self selected as sad people who choose these bizarre behaviours to satisfy their craving for attention. They are unlikely to achieve prominence any other way.
August 8th, 2011 at 5:20 pm
Personally I have a certain amount of sympathy for people like the man in the Benidorm Bar. Clearly he was not happy with his religious rules but it is difficult for people who are ‘born Muslims’ or into any other faith group for that matter, and then later in life find the rules difficult to reconcile. We have to remember that they have been ‘indoctrinated’ from birth and actually believe the crap they have been indoctrinated with. We must not be smug about this and ridicule these people but instead have compassion and understanding for them whilst at the same time make every effort to educate them and free them from their ‘chains’ to their religion. We won’t achieve this if we come across as smug and superior. A more helpful approach would have been to ask him questions where he would have to question the religious rules he’s been brought up with, thereby he would possibly be able to come to a more sensible conclusion about them.
August 9th, 2011 at 12:37 am
At the weekend BBC Radio 4 broadcast a “Profile” of the present chief Ayatolla of Iran, Khomeini. He is said to be God’s representative on Earth. What about Papa Ratzinger, though. I think he thinks that he is. I can’t wait to hear what he has to say in the matter when he gets to hear of the Ayatolla’s outrageous claims. Perhaps they will fight it out with God as the umpire.
August 9th, 2011 at 12:45 am
There are numerous desert parlours/shisha lounges around my way which are opening late during Ramadan. However, once they open they queue out of the door to get in and everyone stuffs their face on ice cream, cakes and those milkshakes made with chocolate bars, etc (hmm… high risk of diabetes amongst certain communities you say?). I suppose it must seem extra nice after not eating all day but cannot be very healthy. Also I routinely see children of all ages at these places until way, way after midnight. Can’t they just have their tea and go to bed at bedtime or is that asking too much?
It’s weird, people who carry containers around to collect thier own spit in during daylight hours are then eating thousands of calories in half an hour once the magic hour arrives.
What for? This demonstrates what exactly? I’d be more impressed with the sacrifice if they gave enough money to feed someone in Somalia for a month. Eating as much, if not more than usual, at odd hours and holding it up as a fast and evidence of your devotion strikes me as silly, bordering on arrogant.