Happy Ramadan everybody. Enjoy your fast and get right with Allah.

I find it very sad that people rate Ramadan poorly and yet truly know nothing about the muslims or this month of Ramadan. Ramadan is a month long fasting practice of self-restraint in order to purify ones soul of sin and represent sacrifice. It is celebrated during the month in which the Quran was sent down and is ended with with a celebration called Eid (feast). This month long practice is similar to the Jewish Day of Antonement a.k.a Yom Kippur, the Christian "Lent" and the various practices of fasting for the Gods in the roman days.

Martha says that the Ramadan fasting is a good way to lose weight except that everyone pigs out after sunset.

Very interesting time for Islam.... but I worked in Libya & Egypt through many Ramadans and fould all the Men to be very grumpy and irritable all day until it was time at 7pm for normality to return...FOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!!!!!!.... Got to give this one a 5...

I can't imagine fasting for that long!

Many years ago (before 1967) my wife attended the American Community High School in Beirut, Lebanon. The route to their school was past a muslim school. During ramadan, the culturally enlightened muslim boys would attack girls from my wife's school. They would spit, urinate, and hurl concrete blocks, stones, broken glass, and bottles from the windows of their so-called religious school. My wife's classmates were not just Americans but also Europeans as well as numerous Lebanese. A police escort finally put a stop to it. Now fast forward to the present, last year an Afghan family moved into our neighborhood. Their 10-year old son is psychotic (or on his way to being). He has been caught several times following the female children (some only 6 or 7 years old)in our neighborhood and hitting them with sticks and rocks. As I recall this was also during ramadan.

what a stupid muslim non sense

Statistics show that on this holiday, The majority of Muslim Teens lose their virginity. It's got to be a good holiday if that's the present they get! I wanna celebrate Ramadan too. :)

Go ahead and knock it all you want everybody. have any of you tried fasting with no food, water, gum or even brushing teeth from sun-up to sun-down for a whole month? Didn't think so. Why do we have to insult something we know nothing about? Leave the terrorists out- they are not Muslims and let the real muslims celebrate their religion without the insults and put-downs.

A truly religious holiday where all sins are forgiven if one fasts and gives to the less fortunate. No lighting candles or wailing to a wall and all that crap, are reasons why this holiday is real, and it is what we all should celebrate.

Far better than the other goat slaughtering festival.

Oh - you cant attack Afghanistan this month! Its Ramadan! Did they actually think we cared at all?!

I'm appalled at the cultural insensitivity and ignorance displayed here. Like someone else said, I'm not going to discredit Chanukkah or Christmas. Ramadan is the holy month of Islam and it is as important to them as each of those holidays are to Jews and Christians, respectively. Christians launched the Crusades, Jews are occupying a Palestinian state, and Islamic fundamentalists attacked America on September 11, 2001. These acts do not represent the ancient teachings of any of these religions. No one religion is "better" than another.

How can you give this holiday a negative rating if you dont celebrate it. It is a holiday that celebrates one's faith. I wont knock Hannukah, Christmas, the summer solstice, Ramadan, or any other day which people use to express their spirituality.

Fasting and repentance form the nucleus of this important Muslim holiday. Not too different from devout Christians giving up certain things for Lent. I personally cannot fathom fasting from sun-up until sundown, with only sips of water to sustain myself from collapsing. I'm being facetious, but you get my point. It's too bad that this holiday is being given a bad rap in light of the 9/11 attacks. Don't condemn a religion and a culture just because it's different from yours. Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks, I always say. In light of our materialistic, consumption-oriented society, perhaps this aspect of Islam is telling us that we should repent for all the wicked things we may have done in our lives. I say, let us collectively, as a nation, do what devout Muslims do, and pray five times a day towards Mecca for forgiveness for our sins. Maybe our priorities would change as a nation. This country is no bed of roses and at times I wish I lived elsewhere, such as Canada, Belize, Sweden, Britain, Ireland, etc. I am a good American, but we are a bad nation at times and we need religious guidance, rather than capitalist, money-talks spiel. A Ramadan-like cleansing of our nations ills is just the thing this nation needs.

I have a few very close friends who are muslims and celebrate Ramadan, and I believe this month-long period of fasting has done them a whole lot of good. I can tell that they look forward to it, and perhaps Osama bin Laden should try observing Ramadan, as it is supposed to be a time of peace and reflection. Okay, I'm sure I would not enjoy eating dates for a month and a half, but there is that huge feast at the end. I'd say this is a great time for all real Muslims and I would never take this away from them. Take care, everyone!