Islam’s Holy Month Could Add to Political Problems

It was the 10th day of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan in 1973, but Egyptian President Anwar Sadat already had decreed that his soldiers would be exempt from the fast as they prepared to launch a daring drive across the Suez Canal into the Sinai Desert.

The president was more than a little discomfited when he strode into the operations room before the first strike and found his senior commanders fasting. The operation, he sternly warned, needed their full concentration.

“I noticed they were very embarrassed,” Sadat wrote in his autobiography. “So I ordered some tea for myself and lit my pipe--whereupon they began to smoke and order tea.”

Now, nearly two decades later, the Arab world again finds itself at war. Once again, the rising of the crescent moon over the desert March 17 marks the debut of the holiest month in Islam--and a whole new set of potential political complications for the crisis in the Persian Gulf.

For Arab soldiers assembled in the Saudi desert, the Muslim tradition of shunning food, drink and tobacco during daylight hours will, as before, be optional. Saudi pilots will be required to eat and make up the fast after the war. But in any case, allied commanders are determined to press ahead with the campaign to dislodge Iraqi troops from Kuwait.

“Our religion teaches us to pray,” said Col. Ahmed Robayan, spokesman for the Joint Arab Forces, “and also to fight.”

Islamic scholars who have sanctioned the war also have endorsed the idea of fighting during Ramadan, noting that in 624 the prophet Mohammed launched a bloody incursion against pagan villagers near Mecca during the holy fasting month. More recently, Iraq and Iran battled for eight years, never stopping during the Ramadan fasts. Egypt’s successful crossing of the Suez in 1973 has inspired the name of a new city near the canal, Tenth of Ramadan.

However, some political scientists and Islamic scholars say the current conflict raises a new set of religious questions never before confronted--questions that, in the growing climate within the Arab world of unease about the war, could further complicate the decision about when to launch a full-scale ground attack against Iraq.

The most important of the complicating factors is that Ramadan is likely to dawn this year not with Muslims waging a holy war against infidels but with televised images of Arabs killing Arabs and, worse, Western troops killing Arabs.

“The rising tide is against the war, everywhere, and I’m sure that the feeling will intensify as time goes on,” said Saad Eddin Ibrahim, a well-known Egyptian sociologist and political scientist. “And if Ramadan should hit before the war is over, that feeling will become even much wider. I would say the overwhelming majority would like to see the fighting either ended or stopped during Ramadan.

“The reservations that many people will have is that this is a war between Muslims in the sacred month of Ramadan,” he added. “The other aspect is that, by that time, probably the land battle will have started, and the reports of killing and wounding and all that will be very abhorrent to many Arabs and Muslims. If the killing is of Muslims at the hand of non-Muslims, it could substantially affect public opinion.”

A further complicating factor is the presence of hundreds of thousands of American, British and French troops in the kingdom, both during Ramadan and during the annual pilgrimage to Mecca beginning June 12, known as the hajj , when 2 million Muslims from all over the world typically travel to the birthplace of the prophet.

Western expatriates living in Saudi Arabia traditionally have scheduled their vacations during Ramadan to avoid the kingdom’s strict prohibitions against eating or drinking in public between dawn and dusk. Enforcement is so strict that some Muslims have been arrested in their homes for eating during daylight hours, said one Western diplomat.

“You’re going to have half a million Americans who want a hamburger at 12 sharp,” said another Western official. “So there are all kinds of nasty deadlines coming up.”

The Saudis, who from the beginning have been quick to patch over conflicts in an attempt to hold the allied coalition together, have played down the likelihood that Ramadan will present new difficulties for the coalition.

Robayan said the army is not concerned that some soldiers may choose to fast during what promises to be a physically punishing land war in which the lives of their fellow allied soldiers may depend upon their ability to perform.

“We do not exercise any religious orders on the soldiers,” he said. “Religion is something for someone to pray to his God. We are military leaders. I don’t think we will order a soldier to break his fast. Because first of all, if he has the will to fast, then even if you think he is weak, as far as physically weak, he would be very strong in his beliefs and morale, and such a person will fight even better than a strong man who does not believe.”

However, Saudi pilots will be required to eat and drink because fluctuations in their blood-sugar levels could affect their flying performance, said a Saudi government official.

The Koran prescribes that travelers, pregnant or menstruating women, soldiers at war and the sick are exempt from fasting during Ramadan, so long as they make up the fast later, said Abdullah Naseef, head of the Muslim World League in Mecca.

The league was responsible for convening Islamic scholars from all over the world in Mecca shortly after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and sanctioning Saudi Arabia’s decision to violate Islamic norms by inviting non-Muslim troops into the kingdom to help combat the Iraqi aggression.

“All this confusion led us to bring the top leaders and ulema (religious scholars) together and put straightforward the judgment of the Koran, so people will listen and think before they just shout and pass judgment without any base,” Naseef said.

If there is a difference of opinion in the Islamic world on the Gulf crisis, it reflects in part the extent to which religion and politics are irrevocably intertwined in the Middle East.

Although there are coalitions of Islamic scholars who meet periodically to resolve questions of Islamic law, most religious rulings come from the imams, sheiks and muftis, who are religious laws unto themselves within their own countries--and often beholden to their political leadership.

Hence, Sadat went to Egypt’s religious scholars for Islamic endorsement of the Camp David peace accords, to the chagrin of the scholars in Mecca; Sheik Abdulaziz ibn Abdullah ibn Baz, the head of Saudi Arabia’s religious establishment, conversely, annoyed religious leaders elsewhere in the Arab world earlier this year when he declared that women are not permitted to drive.

In addition, there is not necessarily a single voice within one country.

Even within Saudi Arabia there is opposition to the presence of foreign troops in the kingdom, Naseef admitted. “But this is not a normal situation. There was an aggression, and it was so strong that there needed to be a deterrent force, and there was an emergency which led to this situation, which has made people make the decision that we should not look at this situation in an ordinary manner. Had it been a different case, then everybody would condemn the presence of such a large number of troops from all over the world, and especially the United States of America.”

Even most of Saudi Arabia’s most conservative religious groups have declined to suggest that Ramadan or the hajj present barriers to continuing the war. Baz only last week issued a ruling calling for “a jihad (holy war) against Saddam, the enemy of God.”

“The people who fight are fighting, the people who want to perform hajj, perform hajj, “ said Mohammed Akkas, a frequent spokesman for conservative Muslims in Saudi Arabia. “Life does not stop because there is war. If the country is in need, do I go to the hajj , or do I go to the battle? No, I go to the battle.”

Iraq’s religious leaders on Monday called for a boycott of the hajj to protest the presence of U.S. and European forces on “the sacred soil of Saudi Arabia,” said Abdallah Fadel, the Iraqi minister of religious property and affairs. “Iraq is pursuing contacts with several Islamic countries in the aim of forging a joint position to boycott the pilgrimage.”

In light of Iraq’s threats to unleash acts of terrorism against the allies, there are concerns that a huge influx of pilgrims could pose a security risk if the war does stretch into the monthlong hajj season.

However, some Western officials say they expect the size of the pilgrimage to be dramatically reduced this year because many will be afraid to come.

“I think if it’s dragged on into the hajj , you’ll probably see the smallest hajj in memory, because I think a lot of pilgrims around the world would be reluctant to come so close to the theater of operations (about 650 miles),” said one Western diplomat. “Nobody who looks at a map would realize the distances involved from (Mecca to) the location of the fighting.”

Several analysts said it is likely the Saudis will limit pilgrimages from Iraq and countries such as Yemen, Jordan and Sudan, which have often supported Iraq.

Thousands of foreigners already are entering the kingdom to make the lesser pilgrimage known as ummra, which can occur at any time of year but which often precedes Ramadan, Naseef said.

“We have many people coming from Egypt, New York, all over the world, as a matter of fact,” Naseef said. “There are thousands. The holy mosque (at Mecca) is full.”

Ghazi Gosaiby, a prominent Saudi intellectual and the kingdom’s ambassador to Bahrain, said the kingdom is determined not to view Ramadan as a deadline for war.

“We hope this battle will not last long, because nobody wants a war to last long, but not because of any particular date,” he said. “I mean, we are defending our country. We will do that in Ramadan, we will do that during the pilgrimage season, if need be. We will do that at any time. A just war is just at any time. It is not a war that you fight in March, and in April you decide it is not a good time to fight a war. On the contrary, I think Ramadan will probably have the people even more willing to sacrifice themselves in order to liberate and defend their country.”

Outside Saudi Arabia, however, the decision seems not nearly so easy.

Jordan’s minister of religious affairs, Ibrahim Zeid Kilani, issued a declaration last week in support of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, affirming that “holy war is a duty for all Muslims.” Islamic leaders in Algeria, Pakistan and Bangladesh have issued similar calls in recent months.

In Egypt, Ibrahim predicted that Muslims will be reluctant to celebrate the traditional feast that breaks the fast of Ramadan, the Eid al Fitr, if the Muslim world is at war with itself.

“The Eid, which follows Ramadan, should be a time of joy,” he said. “The Arab world will be in grief if the Eid comes with the war still on. How can people be joyful if they have to mourn a lot of death and a lot of destruction? If it doesn’t end by Ramadan, I think the intensity of the feelings of the war will increase later.”

TIMING A GROUND ATTACK

Several non-military factors may influence any decision on starting a land war. For instance, a moonlit night and high tide would be favorable elements for an amphibious landing. However, religious holidays such as the Muslim holy periods of Rajab (which ends Thursday) or Ramadan (March 17-April 14) might delay action by either side. But Muslim scholars also consider the 10th day of Ramadan to be a favorable day for attack because Mohammed, the prophet, emerged victorious from battle on that day. February 2: Six months since Iraq invaded Kuwait February 14: Rajab ends February 27, 28: Severe sandstorms begin March 17: Ramadan starts March 26: Tenth of Ramadan High tide Full moon Moonless night Friday, the Muslim day of prayer