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FIRST-TIME FASTERS EMBRACE RAMADAN
The Daily Star (Lebanon)
July 8, 2013 Monday
by Brooke Anderson
Anyone who has ever fasted knows the discipline required for going
without food or drink from sunup to sun down.
BEIRUT: Anyone who has ever fasted knows the discipline required for
going without food or drink from sunup to sun down. And those with
devoted Muslim friends and family members have seen up close what it
takes to make the daily sacrifice for 30 days during the holy month
of Ramadan. Nevertheless, every year millions of people across the
world take up fasting for the first time - be they children who have
reached puberty, religious converts, Muslims who are newly embracing
their faith or non-Muslims who are doing so as a symbolic gesture to
people of a different faith.
"I'll be fasting in solidarity with my Muslim friends this year
for the first time so I can feel the meaning of sacrifice," says
Adriana Bou Diwan, a Christian who is part of an interfaith studies
and solidarity organization called Adyan, Arabic for "religions."
"When you put yourself in the place of someone else you understand
them better," she says. "I'm also doing it because we have a lot in
common in our religious traditions."
Bou Diwan grew up in a predominantly Christian area and was educated
in Catholic schools through university. Until recently she had very
little exposure to Islam. Although she will only fast for one day
because there is no one at home to break the fast with, she will be
taking part in all the traditions, including the predawn suhoor meal.
While Lebanon's Dar al-Fatwa said it would watch for the Ramadan
crescent Monday evening, the office of the late Shiite preacher Sayyed
Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah announced that the first day of Ramadan
would be Tuesday.
The caretaker government said last week that state institutions and
municipalities would run shifts between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. during the
holy month of Ramadan.
Mohammad Anis al-Arwadi, a Beirut-based medical doctor with a PhD
in Shariah law, cautions that first-time fasters should make sure
they are in good medical condition before embarking on a month of
no meals during the daytime. For children under the age of puberty
(generally 13), fasting is advised for only a few days as a way of
"training" for later in life.
Arwadi also suggests people who are new to fasting consider why
they are doing it. He says they should be doing it out of religious
conviction and sacrifice - not for social reasons. But he does support
Christians fasting in solidarity with Muslims, especially in Lebanon,
where sectarian tensions remain a lingering relic of the Civil War.
No matter people's reasons for fasting, he says it's important for
it to be a genuine conviction.
"You're obliging your body, in spite of its instincts, to go
without food," Arwadi says. "It teaches you to feel for poor people
everywhere."
For Garen Yepremian, a Lebanese account executive who arrived in Dubai
three months ago, fasting will be a mandatory exercise throughout
the 30 days of Ramadan - because in the United Arab Emirates it is
forbidden to eat in public during daylight hours.
"Given I already had a heads up, I didn't mind it much," says
Yepremian, an Armenian Christian from Beirut, who knew about the law
before arriving for his latest stint in Dubai. "I just knew that if
I was desperate for food, I'd have to smuggle it in my clothes and
eat it in the bathroom stall without making noise."
Still, he doesn't seem to mind the inconvenience for one month given
the wide ranging freedoms he is afforded the rest of the year in Dubai.
"Given the free lifestyle that people have in Dubai and seeing how
open-minded the country [is], I find it fair to respect their beliefs
in their most holy month and support them just as they have given
everyone else the freedom of belief," he says.
Even with the UAE's strict laws regarding food consumption during the
months of Ramadan, Yepremian believes people are generally fasting
out of their own convictions: "I feel that they are doing so out of
their own will rather than from peer pressure because it's the month
of giving for them."
"Working on multiple marketing campaigns for different clients that
revolve around messaging and wishing blessings to their customers, I've
come to understand why it's such a big deal for them and that makes
me respect them more for being true to their beliefs and convictions."
Rawad Abed, a Druze who never fasted but grew up with many friends who
did, says he wants to try fasting this year - at least for one day -
so that he can understand why people do it.
"I see my friends doing it every year, and they say they enjoy it,"
he says. "I feel like I need to understand the spirit of their
commitment."
http://www.lexisnexis.com.ezproxy.aub.edu.lb/lnacui2api/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T17768913152&fo rmat=GNBFI&sort=BOOLEAN&startDocNo=126&resultsUrlK ey=29_T17768913160&cisb=22_T17768913159&treeMax=tr ue&treeWidth=0&csi=335154&docNo=143
The Daily Star (Lebanon)
July 8, 2013 Monday
by Brooke Anderson
Anyone who has ever fasted knows the discipline required for going
without food or drink from sunup to sun down.
BEIRUT: Anyone who has ever fasted knows the discipline required for
going without food or drink from sunup to sun down. And those with
devoted Muslim friends and family members have seen up close what it
takes to make the daily sacrifice for 30 days during the holy month
of Ramadan. Nevertheless, every year millions of people across the
world take up fasting for the first time - be they children who have
reached puberty, religious converts, Muslims who are newly embracing
their faith or non-Muslims who are doing so as a symbolic gesture to
people of a different faith.
"I'll be fasting in solidarity with my Muslim friends this year
for the first time so I can feel the meaning of sacrifice," says
Adriana Bou Diwan, a Christian who is part of an interfaith studies
and solidarity organization called Adyan, Arabic for "religions."
"When you put yourself in the place of someone else you understand
them better," she says. "I'm also doing it because we have a lot in
common in our religious traditions."
Bou Diwan grew up in a predominantly Christian area and was educated
in Catholic schools through university. Until recently she had very
little exposure to Islam. Although she will only fast for one day
because there is no one at home to break the fast with, she will be
taking part in all the traditions, including the predawn suhoor meal.
While Lebanon's Dar al-Fatwa said it would watch for the Ramadan
crescent Monday evening, the office of the late Shiite preacher Sayyed
Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah announced that the first day of Ramadan
would be Tuesday.
The caretaker government said last week that state institutions and
municipalities would run shifts between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. during the
holy month of Ramadan.
Mohammad Anis al-Arwadi, a Beirut-based medical doctor with a PhD
in Shariah law, cautions that first-time fasters should make sure
they are in good medical condition before embarking on a month of
no meals during the daytime. For children under the age of puberty
(generally 13), fasting is advised for only a few days as a way of
"training" for later in life.
Arwadi also suggests people who are new to fasting consider why
they are doing it. He says they should be doing it out of religious
conviction and sacrifice - not for social reasons. But he does support
Christians fasting in solidarity with Muslims, especially in Lebanon,
where sectarian tensions remain a lingering relic of the Civil War.
No matter people's reasons for fasting, he says it's important for
it to be a genuine conviction.
"You're obliging your body, in spite of its instincts, to go
without food," Arwadi says. "It teaches you to feel for poor people
everywhere."
For Garen Yepremian, a Lebanese account executive who arrived in Dubai
three months ago, fasting will be a mandatory exercise throughout
the 30 days of Ramadan - because in the United Arab Emirates it is
forbidden to eat in public during daylight hours.
"Given I already had a heads up, I didn't mind it much," says
Yepremian, an Armenian Christian from Beirut, who knew about the law
before arriving for his latest stint in Dubai. "I just knew that if
I was desperate for food, I'd have to smuggle it in my clothes and
eat it in the bathroom stall without making noise."
Still, he doesn't seem to mind the inconvenience for one month given
the wide ranging freedoms he is afforded the rest of the year in Dubai.
"Given the free lifestyle that people have in Dubai and seeing how
open-minded the country [is], I find it fair to respect their beliefs
in their most holy month and support them just as they have given
everyone else the freedom of belief," he says.
Even with the UAE's strict laws regarding food consumption during the
months of Ramadan, Yepremian believes people are generally fasting
out of their own convictions: "I feel that they are doing so out of
their own will rather than from peer pressure because it's the month
of giving for them."
"Working on multiple marketing campaigns for different clients that
revolve around messaging and wishing blessings to their customers, I've
come to understand why it's such a big deal for them and that makes
me respect them more for being true to their beliefs and convictions."
Rawad Abed, a Druze who never fasted but grew up with many friends who
did, says he wants to try fasting this year - at least for one day -
so that he can understand why people do it.
"I see my friends doing it every year, and they say they enjoy it,"
he says. "I feel like I need to understand the spirit of their
commitment."
http://www.lexisnexis.com.ezproxy.aub.edu.lb/lnacui2api/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T17768913152&fo rmat=GNBFI&sort=BOOLEAN&startDocNo=126&resultsUrlK ey=29_T17768913160&cisb=22_T17768913159&treeMax=tr ue&treeWidth=0&csi=335154&docNo=143