Some time ago, a Muslim lady of my acquaintance was lamenting her daughter’s behaviour. It was the typical complaint of any parent who’s having to endure living with a surly teenager. But what made it worse, she said was that, it being Ramadan, she wasn’t allowed to give her obstreperous kid even a verbal thick ear.
This is because Ramadan is particularly a time when Muslims are enjoined to commit his or her self to good behaviour and positive attitudes. Controlling your temper and refraining from quarrels are definitely the go. Even raising your voice, “regardless of the reasons and circumstances”, is absolutely enjoined.
Now, I have no reason to doubt this lovely lady’s sincerity, and Islamic scripture is quite clear about how Muslims must behave during Ramadan.
Unfortunately, too many of her co-religionists don’t seem to have got that particular memo from the Prophet.
The “Ramadan Bombathon” is an annual, grim joke among certain folk with a rather sceptical attitude to Islam’s much-lauded “peacefulness”.
Unfortunately, jokes aside, it seems a bit incongruous that the time when the folk of the “religion of peace” are under holy orders to be more peaceful than usual is so, well…violent.
According to The Religion of Peace website, which tracks the number of terrorist attacks and deaths during Islam’s holy month of Ramadan, this year’s Ramadan Bombathon included the murder of a Muslim shopkeeper in Sri Lanka during riots that followed the Islamic State Easter Day slaughter of 258 at churches and hotels.
Of course, this was dwarfed in typical fashion by the Religion of Peace, which, during its holiest month, inspired terror attacks in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, CAR, Chad, DRC, Egypt, France, India, Iran, Iraq, , Israel, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Somalia, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, and Yemen.
Still, we should be grateful, I suppose, that the annual Bombathon has come down from the high-scores of 2015.
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