Ramadan Kareem

It's difficult to resist the urge to add "Abdul Jabar" after this, but I manage.

We're about two-thirds of the way through the month of Ramadan now and I have some observations.

First of all, as much as I was dreading arriving in the UAE a few days before the onset of Ramadan, I have to say it's really having very little effect on my life.  The only nuisance is trying to hail a taxi in the early afternoon when it seems as if the entire population is on the road.  Places like Starbucks and Costa Coffee are closed until after Iftar (the evening prayer when the day-long fast is broken), but I don't really care because I don't go to places like Starbucks and  Costa Coffee.  Shops are open from about 0900 to 1300 and then again from 1900 to midnight. So I do my errands in the morning.  I can't eat or drink in public during daylight hours, but I'm not really one of those people who walks the streets of a city chewing on a snack (which is why I'm thin).  I drink my water and coffee at home.  People are nice, and generally kind, and respond with enormous smiles when I greet them with "Ramadan Kareem" or "Ramadan Mubarak."  So really, I don't feel affected at all.

But I do.

You see, I'm not a religious person (sorry mum).  I'm just not.  I began questioning religion in the third grade when I asked my first grade teacher (a nun) why the bible told the story of creation while scientists talked about something called a Big Bang Theory.  I stopped being religious in the sixth grade when I asked myself the question "How do we know there is a god?"  In my mind, I was lucky:  I had a choice.  In Islam, however, there really isn't a choice.  Apostasy is punishable by death.  Go ahead, Google "apostasy Islam."  I'll wait.

Since the world we live in is such that children inherit the religions of their parents, we end up with what Richard Dawkins suggests can't really exist:  "Muslim" children, "Christian" children, "Jewish" children.  In all cases, I view this as an injustice, but in the case of the Muslim child, I find it to be one of the greatest evils inflicted on human beings, because of the apostasy penalties.

How does this relate to Ramadan, you ask?  Well, I'll tell you.

Throughout this month, there are articles about Ramadan in every periodical you can find.  Explanations of what Ramadan is about (spiritual reflection, separation of the physical from the spiritual, etc.) abound.  One of the more interesting blurbs I've come across is from Time Out's "Ultimate Guide to Ramadan."  It says:

What is the aim of fasting?

There are many people who are starving in the world, so when you fast you feel what they feel all day long.

This is very difficult to swallow (no pun intended), given that on the facing page there is an advertisement by the Beach Rotana Hotel for "lavish Iftar buffets" at a cost of AED 135 per person (not including 10% service charge and 6% tourism fee).  If you think that's expensive, the Shangri-La hotel has an AED 170 (plus extra fees) Iftar offer.  Given that the average gold and white taxi driver makes about AED 13 for an hour's worth of driving me around town, I don't really think he can afford this type of fast-breaking experience.  And it is utterly outside the reach of the average labourer in, say, the construction field.

Which brings me to another point.  It's these labourers I'm worried about.  They're poor.  Really, really, really poor.  They live in labour camps - god knows how many to a room.  They work in the blistering sun and heat all day long.  Their families are thousands of miles away.

And they HAVE to fast, as all other Muslims do.

What sort of philosophy exists that it makes even the remotest sense to force these poor blokes to starve and dehydrate themselves for 14 hours a day so that they can feel what someone who has even less than they do feels while the wealthy fasters go home and sleep in their air-conditioned villas, enjoy Iftar "feasts," head out to the spas that are open half the night, and take advantage of all the special sales at furniture stores?

Here's another fun example, also from Time Out's "Ultimate Guide."

Dermika salon in Al Muhairy Centre says the following in its one-page advertisement:

Ramadan is a time of religious importance when one can take pleasure in the magnificent experience of sacrifice.  There is no need to sacrifice beauty, however.  We invite you to our Dermika One Stop Beauty Shop.....With our special Ramadan rates and offers you have all the reasons to visit the Dermika One Stop Beauty Shop to look and feel your best every day

I have to stop here because I just don't know what else to say.