c. 1998 Religion News Service
WASHINGTON _ Not everyone is as cautious about launching attacks during Ramadan as the United States, including the Iraqis.
In his address to the nation announcing his strike against Iraq, President Clinton said he wanted to start the attack before the Islamic holy month of Ramadan which begins this weekend with the sighting of the new moon.
While the United States is being sensitive to that holiday to avoid inflaming other Islamic countries, the Iraqis themselves have shown no such compunctions about violence during Ramadan, and neither have other Islamic nations.
During the eight-year Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, both sides fought fiercely during Ramadan, recalled Helmut Sonnenfeldt, a former State Department official who also served on the National Security Council staff under President Nixon.
Egypt and Syria, with Iraq’s support, launched an all-out sneak attack on Israel on Oct. 6, 1973, when Ramadan coincided with Yom Kippur, the highest of Jewish holy days.
“Before they launched the attack, they got rulings from Islamic clerics that it was permissible,” said Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic relations, a Washington-based Islamic advocacy group.
In Israel the conflict is known as the “Yom Kippur War,” but in Egypt it is known as the “Ramadan War.”
For Islamic nations, Ramadan historically has been a time to forgo hostility and fighting, but the rule is frequently ignored.
“In the 1,400 years since the prophet Mohammed, I’m sure there have been situations that didn’t live up to the ideal that Islamic law promotes,” Hooper said. “Saddam Hussein would be the last one to be concerned about whether to attack during Ramadan. He doesn’t care about Ramadan one way or the other.”
The bottom line, said Hooper, is that “having bombs dropped on your head is provocative whether it’s during Ramadan or not. Concern should be about human suffering, not to the calendar.”
“It’s certainly not unusual for Muslim states to fight during Ramadan,” agreed Shibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat professor for peace and development at the University of Maryland.
“This doesn’t mean Muslim states don’t have sensitivities about other states waging war during Ramadan,” Telhami said. “The United States in the past has always believed it was not wise to launch warfare in the Persian Gulf during Ramadan, mostly out of deference to the Saudis.”
Salam al-Marayati, director of the Muslim public affairs council in Los Angeles, said concern for Ramadan “is not something Clinton invented.”
“Arabs will be mad because they see a double standard,” said Yvonne Haddad, professor of history of Islam and Christian-Muslim relations at Georgetown University. “They want to know why Clinton isn’t bombing Netanyahu,” she said, referring to the Israeli prime minister.
Haddad said there is nothing in the Sharia, the legal foundation of Islamic civilization, that prohibits war during Ramadan. But the Koran, which is superior, does have a prohibition against fighting during periods of religious celebration and observance, Haddad said.
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