Thursday, September 17, 2009

Breakfast in Morocco

In recent years many Western nations have done their best to help enforce the legal requirements of shari’a when pressured by their Muslim minorities. The pandering has even reached the point where, during Ramadan, non-Muslims in public employment are sometimes forbidden to eat their lunch where Muslims can see them.

Now, in one of the bitter ironies of our time, a group of courageous Moroccans is risking arrest and punishment for asserting the right to eat in public.

While we are rushing pell-mell to surrender our civil liberties, people in Morocco are struggling to claim theirs for the first time.

According to ANSAmed:

Ramadan: Moroccans Attempting to Break Fast Reported

(ANSAmed) — RABAT, SEPTEMBER 15 — Six people have been reported to the legal authorities for attempting to publicly break their Ramadan fast in Mohammedia (80km south of Rabat).

The group said that they are part of the “Alternative movement for the defence of individual liberties”, unheard of until now, but which includes Zineb Elghzaoui, a journalist for the Journal Hebdomadaire, as one of their members.
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The demonstrators, who were blocked by police, were supposed to break their Ramadan fast “to protest against a law punishing non-observance during the month of Ramadan”. It is the first time in Morocco that a group of people publicly demanded the right not to fast.

In a statement issued by press agency MAP, the Ulema Council of Mohammedia denounced “this loathsome act that challenges God and the prophet’s teachings: a public attack of this nature on religion cannot be tolerated”. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims are called to abstain from food, drink, smoking, and sexual relations from dusk until dawn.


Hat tip: Insubria.

1 comments:

X said...

Don't they mean "dawn until dusk"? Either way the islamic fasting isn't particularly testing. I've gone without meals and sex for entire days without even blinking. I'd like to see one of these "pious" muslims try a real fast.

That's my little rant over. Nice to see someone is at least trying to promote a bit of individual liberty somewhere.