realclearworld Newsletters: Mideast Memo
Ramadan, most Muslims believe, marks the time the Quran was first revealed to Muhammad. This week, millions around the world welcomed the beginning of the holy month, which is typically commemorated through intense prayer and daily fasting from dusk until dawn.
Ramadan by its very design can be a trying month for Muslims, especially those experiencing longer days farther away from the equator. Turkish Muslims, for instance, may experience more arduous fasting periods than their coreligionists in Indonesia, especially when Ramadan occurs during the summertime.
Geography and the sweltering summer heat can take quite a toll on the Middle East’s economic output during this time. Some Mideast countries shorten work days during Ramadan and enact laws prohibiting strenuous outdoor labor.
Such prolonged fasting can can be detrimental to a Muslim country’s economy, according to a paper published last year by Harvard University professors Filipe Campante and David Yanagizawa-Drott. “We show that longer prescribed Ramadan fasting has a robust negative effect on output growth in Muslim countries, whether measured by GDP per worker, GDP per capita, or total GDP,” write the study’s authors.
Muslims aren’t in exact agreement on when this all begins and ends, as the Muslim calendar is a lunar one pegged to the different phases of the moon. They are, however, in agreement on one thing: Once Ramadan ends, it’s time to eat, pray, and be joyous.
And eat they do: During the fast-breaking holiday of Eid al-Fitr, Muslims are encouraged to indulge and enjoy the kinds of foods their better judgement might otherwise instruct them to avoid. "On Eid, you are encouraged to eat all the things that are too rich, too sweet, too creamy for a normal day," food writer Sumayya Usmani told the New York Times.
Food, and the absence or abundance of it, plays an important role in most major religions. Fasting is designed to bring us closer to our creator, our hunger pangs reminding us of the suffering and sacrifices of those who came before us.
In the war-torn Middle East, however, food has also been used as a weapon, and this Ramadan season has been no exception. As the five-year-long civil war in Syria rages on with no apparent end in sight, the embattled Assad government has increasingly turned to the tactic of siege and starvation in its bid to regain territory from the variety of rebel groups occupying parts of the country.
In the Damascus suburb of Daraya -- one of the four locations identified by U.N. officials as presently being cordoned off by the Assad regime and its allies -- malnourishment is on the rise, affecting children and the elderly most acutely. U.N. officials fear that if the government continues to drag its feet on allowing aid workers into these communities, many will likely starve to death.
"The blockage of aid is a political issue," said U.N. spokesman Ahmad Fawzi in a recent briefing. "Daraya is 12 km (7.5 miles) from Damascus, so it can be done but we need the political go-ahead from the government."
Siege and starvation certainly isn’t a new tactic for Damascus, but such measures are no doubt felt more sharply in a time of fasting and religious obligation. As one of the five pillars of the Muslim faith, the decision of whether to fast is one of great significance to any Muslim -- especially those living under occupation and war.
The same is true even for those living in the territory controlled by President Assad himself. In Damascus, the war has pushed the price of groceries and other basic necessities through the roof, forcing Muslims to scale back or cancel entirely customs that were once routine in more peaceful Ramadan seasons past.
“A family used to be able to live with about $70 a month, now you need at least $1,000,” complained one Damascan woman recently to Al Arabiya.
The price of prolonged violence across the Middle East weighs not only on the region and its predominantly Muslim inhabitants, but on the entire world. Indeed, a recent report by the Institute for Economics and Peace found that violence cost the global economy $13.6 trillion in 2015, much of it stemming from the Middle East and North Africa.
“If you take the Middle East out of the equation, the world has become more peaceful,” noted the Institute’s founder, Steve Killelea, in an interview with Bloomberg.
It’s a troubling and tragic reality, and one that appears unlikely to be remedied before the conclusion of this Ramadan season. It is also a grim reminder for Muslims and non-Muslims alike that human suffering rarely takes a holiday, and that history is often unkind to those who turn a blind eye to it.
The Right Way to Observe Ramadan -- New York Times
Is It Eid or Not? Trying to Resolve an Old Calendar Dispute -- Al-Monitor
Global Peace Index: 2015 -- Institute for Economics and Peace
Ramadan Traditions Die in Damascus -- Al Arabiya
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