Photo by Rauf Alvi on Unsplash This essay is a Cover Story selection, a weekly feature highlighting the top picks from the editors of America Media. Several years ago, not knowing at all what it would entail, I Googled a question: How do you keep Ramadan? In the spring of 2019, after a series of high profile attacks on Muslim people in New York City and a reported rise in Islamophobia, I felt compelled to act in tangible solidarity with this vulnerable and targeted community. It just so happened that Ramadan was starting the next day. I decided I would observe its discipline of fasting as a way of accompaniment and solidarity. I knew this sacred time in the Islamic tradition meant abstaining from eating and drinking from sunrise to sunset, but I discovered it was even more rigorous. You fast from dawn—that is, even before the sun rises—until sunset. It also did not occur to me then that when Ramadan (the dates of which are determined by a lunar calendar) falls in the spring, with …
This reminds me of the stupidity of an awful USCCB publication that sought to combine inter-religious dialogue with Advent. The 1st Sunday of Advent was dedicated to Judaism, the 2nd to Islam, the 3rd to Buddhism, and the 4th to Hinduism. I quipped to someone: "When do we commemorate Christianity?" Clearly these dolts have lost the faith - if they ever had it! Another anecdote - I once worked at a large chain bookstore (which is now defunct) and they allowed all types of immoral books to be displayed openly except 2 titles : The Anarchist's Cookbook [bomb making guide] and a book entitled Why I am not a Muslim. Wonder why?
Why not just fast like Catholics of earlier ages: no meat, no dairy, no alcohol, bread and water mainly, ( and abstinence from sexual relations for married people)