Fw: Ramadan fast for peace- day 2
----- Original Message -----
From: carol wolman
To: peacemakers
Sent: Saturday, October 16, 2004 8:23 AM
Subject: Ramadan fast for peace- day 2
O LORD, our LORD,
how glorious is Your name over all the earth!
how glorious is Your name over all the earth!
Psalm 8: 2
I call on all Jews and Christians to join our Muslim brothers and sisters in the Ramadan fast. This holiday began yesterday for Sunnis, today for Shi'ites, and consists of abstaining from food, drink, sex and cigarettes from sunup to sundown, for 30 days.
Ramadan commemorates the giving of the golden scroll of the Qu'ran to Mohammed. Many battles were fought during this special month over the next few years to defend the new faith. In 1468, Muslims defeated the Mongol barbarians who were decimating the countryside- over 1 1/2 million Muslims killed- and saved Christian Europe from being overrun.
Many Muslims believe, perhaps correctly, that the "war on terror" is in fact a Christian crusade against Islam. Some of Bush's rhetoric and much of the preaching of the false preachers who support him, would so indicate. For some Iraqi Muslims, Ramadan is the time to drive out the crusaders. With elections coming up in the US and Bush eager to show the American voters a decisive victory against these "insurgents", the tension is mounting.
Peacemakers are urgently needed on both sides. The fanatical jihadis are blowing up churches. The Iraqi Christian community is ancient and has always lived peaceably, side by side with their Muslim neighbors. Suddenly, for the first time in 1500 years, they feel unsafe, and are leaving in droves.
Many Muslims are praying for peace during this year's Ramadan. My Arabic teacher tells me that the word "Muslim" means "one who submits to God". This is the same God that Christians and Jews worship. We all worship the God of Abraham and Moses, Who tells us not to kill, steal, bear false witness, nor covet what belongs to our neighbor.
Do you worship God? Do you submit to Him, doing your best to live a good life according to the Ten Commandments? If so, says my teacher, you are a Muslim.
Both the Old and New Testaments say that we should love our neighbors. The Qu'ran says something similar. Are we not all neighbors on this small planet?
Do you have love for the Iraqi families whose homes are being destroyed? How about the deformed babies and aborted fetuses who are victims of our depleted uranium weaponry? How about the grieving relatives of the dead? These people never tried to hurt America. Even after suffering 12 years of vicious sanctions imposed by the US and Britain, the Iraqi people were generally friendly to visiting Americans prior to the 2003 invasion.
Now some Iraqis are trying to drive out the American barbarians who allowed their precious heritage to be destroyed in the post-war vandalism spree. The barbarians have imprisoned, tortured and killed tens of thousands of their compatriots, "privatized" their national resources, spread their countryside with poisonous uranium dust, and otherwise wrecked everything the Iraqi people hold dear. Can you blame them for their holy war?
My teacher says: It’s really nice experience to practice fasting; wise people always try to live the same conditions under which other people live, so they would understand things better.
This makes sense to me- after one day of Ramadan I feel much more aware of the Iraqi point of view. Please join me in the Ramadan fast for peace. It will bring us closer to God and help us to love our neighbors.
O LORD, our LORD,
how glorious is Your name over all the earth!
how glorious is Your name over all the earth!
Psalm 8: 2
In the name of the Prince of Peace, Carol Wolman
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