Ramadan monthlong fasting starts

Cotabato City, Philippines—Millions of Filipino Muslims begin today (Monday) the observance of Ramadan, a holy month of fasting for followers of Islam around the world.

As Muslims prepared for the Ramadan, police placed their units in Western Mindanao on alert to preempt any violence from extremist and criminal bands.

During the month, devotees of Islam are expected to abstain during daylight hours from food, drink, smoking and sex to focus on spirituality.

Ramadan begins around 11 days earlier each year. Its start is calculated based on the sighting of the new moon, which marks the beginning of the Muslim lunar month that varies between 29 and 30 days.

Official statements issued on Saturday in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and Yemen said the holy month would start—as it would among Muslims in the largely Roman Catholic Philippines—on Monday.

Muslims observe the ninth month of the lunar Islamic calendar when the Archangel Gabriel revealed the Koran—Islam’s holy book—to the Prophet Mohammed.

The fast is one of the five pillars of Islam, along with the annual pilgrimage to Mecca which able Muslims should do once in a lifetime.

Time for prayers

The Dharul Ifta (House of Opinion), a collective body of Islamic scholars and clerics in Cotabato City, said that since the moon had not been sighted from selected observation points until late Saturday, the Ramadan fasting would start Monday.

Estimates of the number of Filipino Muslims vary from 3.86 million, according to 2000 data released by the National Statistics Office (NSO), to a little over 5 million, according to US government figures. The Islamic Web put it at 10.4 million.

During the month, many Muslims spend longer time in seclusion, which they devote to prayers, said Ustadz Jaafar Ali, president of the National Ulama Council of the Philippines.

They also “avoid hurting others, even through backbiting, during the daily fasting,” he said.

Season of forgiveness

Ramadan is about physical and spiritual cleansing to stay fit and keep the faith strong, not about hurting other people, Ali said.

“Ramadan is not about fanaticism,” he said. “It’s a season of mercy, repentance and forgiveness.”

Ali said causing even the slightest physical hurt upon a person would invalidate the fast and that hatred should have no place especially during the fasting season.

He said that fasting was also being taught by other religions, not by Islam alone.

Intelligence reports

Ali’s remarks followed police claims that some groups might use the Ramadan period to engage in violent activities.

Earlier, Chief Supt. Felicisimo Khu, the chief of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operations (Dipo) in Western Mindanao, said the police had raised the alert level in anticipation of an upsurge of crimes and terrorist activities.

“As in the past, crimes and terrorism usually occur ahead of the fasting month so we put our troops on an alert status,” Khu said.

Citing what he called intelligence reports, Khu said at least 10 improvised explosive devices had been prepared by the Jemaah Islamiyah-linked bomber Basit Usman to be set off in populated areas of Mindanao.

Police and military forces are also on guard against kidnap-for-ransom gangs which prey on Chinese-Filipino traders, according to Khu.

Ramadan fair

As part of the Ramadan observance, a three-day Ramadan Trade Fair will open on Monday at SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City, former Sen. Santanina Rasul told reporters.

Rasul said the fair, an annual activity led by the Department of Tourism, would include cultural presentations and exhibit native products from the five provinces of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The region’s observance will also be marked by a monthlong trade fair inside the regional government complex here, said ARMM Executive Secretary Naguib Sinarimbo. With reports from Inquirer Research, AP and AFP