Holy month atrocities

Of late, I have taken a personal interest in the significance of fasting, especially during Ramaddan. The idea of foregoing our own needs in search for a higher purpose seemed valid - not to mention the physical benefits too. Yesterday's bombing in Istanbul however made me reconsider. During this Holy month of Ramaddan, the idea that a Muslim zealot is able to carry out such acts confounds me.

I started reading from Muslim.org and was amazed to read about Ramaddan and its real significance :

Purpose of fasting in Islam
To develop and strengthen our powers of self-control, so that we can resist wrongful desires and bad habits, and therefore “guard against evil” (extract no. 1). In fasting, by refraining from the natural human urges to satisfy one's appetite, we are exercising our ability of self-restraint, so that we can then apply it to our everyday life to bring about self-improvement.

To attain nearness and closeness to God so that He becomes a reality in our lives. As we bear the rigours of fasting purely for the sake of following a Divine commandment, knowing and feeling that He can see all our actions however secret, it intensifies the consciousness of God in our hearts, resulting in a higher spiritual experience (see extract no. 2).

To learn to refrain from usurping other's rights and belongings. In fasting we voluntarily give up even what is rightfully ours; how can then we think of taking what is not ours? (See extract no. 3)

Charity and generosity is especially urged during Ramadan. We learn to give, and not to take. The deprivation of fasting makes us sympathise with the suffering of others, and desirous of alleviating it; and it makes us remember the blessings of life which we normally take for granted.
Fasting in Islam does not just consist of refraining from eating and drinking, but from every kind of selfish desire and wrong-doing. The fast is not merely of the body, but essentially that of the spirit as well (see extract no. 4). The physical fast is a symbol and outward expression of the real, inner fast.

Fasting is a spiritual practice to be found in all religions (see extracts no. 1 and 5). The great Founders of various faiths (Buddha, Moses, Jesus, etc.) practised quite rigorous fasting as a preliminary to attaining their first experience of spiritual enlightenment and communion with God. This kind of communion is indicated in extract no. 2.

The idea of Ramaddan as a matter of charity and generosity eludes me this time. That the bomb was set in a Muslim country and took among others Muslim lives, during a Muslim holy month, makes me wonder if all this is just a hypocritical rhetoric! Of course it is easy to argue that it's really just a few bad apples spoiling the harvest, but if they are really serious about upholding the truths of Islam, should not Muslims take a more prominent stance against terrorism instead of a back (stabbing) seat in all this?

Meanwhile Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon immediately released a statement, following the second twin bombings in Turkey in the space of a week, that Islamic violence threatens the free world. The act giving him ample opportunity to state what seems to be the obvious. The article in Jerusalem Post went on to say that Turkey experts quickly warned that at greatest risk are states that make up the small bloc of moderate Arab/Islamic states, mentioning countries like Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, and especially Turkey...

Whether Al-Qaeda continues to spawn new cells with greater ability or if this is just a heightened but unsustainable assailment of the West and "Western-minded Muslim deviants", remains to be seen. What this may do is to further factionalize the Faith and in the process lose the voice of mdern Islamic moderation. By isolating Russia and NATO, having already lost Saddam Hussein and with the likes of Gaddafi and Egypt neutralize, the ground for manouvering is slowly but surely tightening... and from the view point of the rest of the world, this is not an unattractive proposition at all.