RAMADAN : FASTING IN SUFFERING

While many of us are observing Ramadan comfortably, many others are fasting in suffering. At the present time, the Muslim World is disarray, in great tumult; reason being that there is no central authority respectable enough to command unity. The nearest to this global Muslim unity, the Ottoman Sultanate in Turkey, was destroyed almost a […]

While many of us are observing Ramadan comfortably, many others are fasting in suffering. At the present time, the Muslim World is disarray, in great tumult; reason being that there is no central authority respectable enough to command unity. The nearest to this global Muslim unity, the Ottoman Sultanate in Turkey, was destroyed almost a century ago. We must remember what Allah says about United Nations, European Union and NATO in Surah Anfal 8:73 that they “are allies to one another (and) if you (Muslims) do not do so (i.e. become allies one to another), there will be Fitnah (wars, tumult) and a great mischief!” So our lack of United Muslim Nation is what is causing such upheavals in our lands. May Allah ease the suffering of those fasting under difficult conditions.
 NORTH EAST: In Nigeria’s North East, and over in the border areas of Cameroon, Chad and Niger Republic, the people are fasting under very trying conditions as Boko Haram has still not lost its capacity for suicide bombings. As if to score extra points against the new Nigerian Administration, the insurgents have stepped up their indiscriminate attacks, mostly using drugged young girls. The people of Maiduguri, Damaturu, Potiskum, Ndjamena, Diffa and other places are fasting in intense trauma of not knowing when or where the next bomb will explode. Add to them the millions of Internally Displaced Persons uprooted from their homes and now living, surviving, in refugee camps. May Allah ease the suffering of the people of the North East.
MUHAMMAD MORSI: The legitimately-elected President of Egypt, Muhammad Morsi, PhD, Professor, Engineer, Hafiz, is fasting his tenth fast of this Ramadan on death row! And Morsi is not alone; all the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood are today on death row, from the Murshid (Guide) Muhammad Badei to his deputies. Their crime was asking FOR democracy. Meanwhile, the anti-thesis of democracy – former President Mubarak and present usurper General AbdulFattah al-Sisi, roam free. Recall what occurred two Ramadans ago at Cairo’s Madinat Nasr Rabia Mosque where hundreds were massacred, and in sha Allah martyred. May Allah ease the suffering of members of the Brotherhood.
PALESTINE QUDS: The world continues to watch as Israeli impunity continues. Gaza continues to be one huge prison camp, hemmed in on almost all sides – including seawards – by Israel, and blocked on the Egyptian side by Al Sisi, on instruction from his Israeli masters. Some analysts in fact link the coup against Morsi to be directly related to the fact he had opened the Egypt-Gaza border wide open for Palestinians to ‘breath’. The greatest impunity of Israel yet manifested itself on the first Friday of this Ramadan, when they issued ‘permits’ to a few Palestinians from Gaza to travel to Quds (Jerusalem) and pray at the Masjid Aqsa, Islam’s third holiest mosque. Permits. In their own country! And one had to be over sixty years of age to even be so permitted! May Allah ease the suffering of the Palestinians.
YEMEN SAUDIA: The dirt-poor people of Yemen continue to fast under the wicked bombing of Saudi America who have learned the art of aerial bombardment from their lords and masters, the Americans. In their avowed aim to dislodge the Houthis, another wicked usurping contraption not representing the majority Yemenites, the Saudis are bombing the wretched country of Yemen back into the tenth century. Airports, power plants and waterworks have all been destroyed in a country which has no resources to re-build them. Most of the sufferers from this bombardment are the poor masses whom the Saudis purport to protect. Like their American masters, the Saudis are averse to ‘boots on the ground’, the only way the Houthis could be dislodged. May Allah ease the suffering of the Yemenis.
IRAQ SYRIA: The ‘Mother’ of Boko Haram, so-called Islamic State in Syria and the Levant (ISIL, or IS) continues to cause extreme Fitnah, in Iraq and Syria. While the IS bomb from one side, the intrinsically wicked regime of Bashar Al Assad in Syria continues to drop barrel bombs and poisonous chemicals on its own people, and America complements all these by raining bombs from on high. The legitimate freedom fighters trying to overthrow Bashar have almost fizzled out – reason being that Israel and the West are more comfortable with Bashar as Syrian helmsman than any genuine Islamic revolution in Syria. And the beneficiary of all this? Israel undoubtedly – Muslims murdering each other. An analyst once asked: “If the IS is really fighting a Jihad, don’t they know Israel is just across the Golan Heights?” (Readers would do well to Google ‘Palestinian Parody on IS’ on YouTube.) May Allah ease the suffering of Iraqis and Syrians.
UIGHUR CHINA: As happens every year, the Muslim people of China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region are still being banned from observing the Ramadan fast, as it has been over the past several decades. This Muslim minority continues to suffer from China’s religious and political persecution. (Interestingly enough, Chinese Christians, a much smaller minority, do NOT suffer the same fate!) According to Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the exile World Uighur Congress: “The government [of China] is still forcing Muslim members of the government throughout Xinjiang to sign ‘letters of responsibility’ promising to avoid fasting, evening prayers [tarawih], or other religious activities. Government says ‘fasting during Ramadan is a traditional ethnic custom…’” May Allah ease the suffering of the Uighurs.
ROHINGYA MYANMAR: No sanctions, or even strong condemnation, is coming the way of Myanmar (Burma) in its treatment of Rohingya Muslims in the country. Persecution has forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas to flee the country, through perilous sea crossings to other countries where more often than not they are sent back, while thousands perish, and no international organisation is speaking up for them. While in China it is the Godless Communists inflicting the suffering, in Burma it is the Buddhists, the same people who claim to be intrinsically peaceful, and have the Dalai Lama to show for it. A recent letter written by Rohingyas to the Muslim people of the world says: “Ramadan in Burma is passing as fast as elsewhere, but for us the nights of worship remain the nights of nightmares. And the days of fasting keep us ever watchful of extremists attacking us…Not a single Masjid in Rohingya’s Arakan State is allowed to operate – all are shut down…” May Allah ease the suffering of the Rohingyas.
TALIBAN AFGHANISTAN: Afghanistan continues to be a virtual no-man’s-land. The American-backed Government holds sway only in Kabul, while the rest of the country in under incessant Taliban marauding, their version of our Boko Haram. Meanwhile, American drones keep droning overhead and murdering innocent civilians in the quest for Al Qaeda in the fastnesses of Tora Bora. May Allah ease the suffering of the Afghanis.
ALSHABAB SOMALIA: The East African Boko Haram, Al Shabab, continues its ‘mission’ in Somalia and Kenya. Through their efforts, Muslims are receiving the end of the stick in all circumstances. May Allah ease the suffering of the Somalis.
SELEKA BALAKA: Many of us may have forgotten the religious cleansing that occurred two years ago in the Central African Republic. Muslims were specifically targeted and massacred, with the connivance of the French and UN forces who are there ostensibly for safe keeping (remember Srebrenica twenty years ago). The so-called Anti-Balaka militias killed and murdered and raped hundreds of thousands of Muslims they called Seleka-supporters. Nobody is following up on how these Muslims are coping this Ramadan. May Allah ease the suffering of the Central African Republic Muslims.
Allah has summed it all for us: “…wa illa taf’aluhu…” Unless we become a United Muslim Nation, this Fitnah will continue! Hasbunal Lahu wa ni’imal Wakil!