It's Holiday Time
When the United States attacked Afghanistan in response to 9/11, well meaning internationalists and Muslim authorities urged them to suspend bombing during Ramadan so as not to offend Muslim sensibilities. This, we submit to you gentle reader, is the height of brazen hypocrisy.
Sure, it's really easy to focus on how Arab countries had no problem with killing and dying during Ramadan when they launched a massive surprise war against Israel in 1973. But that might distract from more recent trends...
Even before the Bali bombings, the Middle East was jittery as it headed into Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting and spiritual introspection that has become, as well, a time of increased terror attacks. From Iraq to Lebanon to the Sinai, the month of prayer and after-dark feasting is now, often, a month of heightened security... One possible reason is the belief by some Islamic extremists that those who die in combat for a holy cause during Ramadan are especially blessed.
... and specific atrocities:
Suspected Muslim militants beheaded a villager in southern Thailand on the eve of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, the 11th decapitation in 21 months of separatist unrest, police said on Wednesday. The head and torso of the man, thought to be in his 50s, were dumped in two fertiliser bags beside a road in a rubber plantation in Yala, one of the three southernmost provinces hit by the violence in which 900 people have died.
But if the West fights back during Ramadan, the Muslim terrorists might become unreasonable.
Sure, it's really easy to focus on how Arab countries had no problem with killing and dying during Ramadan when they launched a massive surprise war against Israel in 1973. But that might distract from more recent trends...
Even before the Bali bombings, the Middle East was jittery as it headed into Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting and spiritual introspection that has become, as well, a time of increased terror attacks. From Iraq to Lebanon to the Sinai, the month of prayer and after-dark feasting is now, often, a month of heightened security... One possible reason is the belief by some Islamic extremists that those who die in combat for a holy cause during Ramadan are especially blessed.
... and specific atrocities:
Suspected Muslim militants beheaded a villager in southern Thailand on the eve of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, the 11th decapitation in 21 months of separatist unrest, police said on Wednesday. The head and torso of the man, thought to be in his 50s, were dumped in two fertiliser bags beside a road in a rubber plantation in Yala, one of the three southernmost provinces hit by the violence in which 900 people have died.
But if the West fights back during Ramadan, the Muslim terrorists might become unreasonable.
