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CNN Live Saturday

Muslims Mark the Beginning of Holy Month of Ramadan

Aired November 17, 2001 - 18:25   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: For Muslims, this weekend marks the beginning of Ramadan, a time for prayer and fasting and contemplation. CNN's Margaret Lowrie on the holy month meaning and how it affects so many.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARGARET LOWRIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ramadan is not a holiday. It is a holy month for Muslims. From dawn to dusk, it is a time of abstention.

DILIP HIRO, "DICTIONARY OF THE MIDDLE EAST": And during that period between sunrise and sunset, they should not eat, they should not drink, they should not even swallow their own saliva or have sexual intercourse.

LOWRIE: Ramadan means season of heat, and it is the ninth month of the Lunar calendar. It was in Ramadan, the prophet Muhammad received his first divine revelation. Ramadan moves earlier each successive year, because the Lunar calendar is only 354 days long. For believers, it is a time for self-examination, inner reflection, a process to help cleanse the soul.

IBRAHIM KHAYATT, "AL HAYATT" NEWSPAPER: To show a denunciation; to come toward the other -- the others; and to live in soul and family -- on a family base, on a social level; sharing the same idea, the same ideas. You know, believing and denunciating to the -- to the materialistic way of life, and to go back a bit to the spiritual way of life.

LOWRIE: But when each day is over, the special time of sharing segues from fast to feast.

HIRO: Especially during Ramadan, you must be very considerate to other people and also you must not fight. Now, that can be a bit, shall I say, given to different interpretations.

LOWRIE: Different interpretations indeed, which may explain why in recent history Syria and Egypt launched a war on Israel in 1973 during Ramadan and why Iran and Iraq continued their bombardment of each other over eight successive Ramadans in the 1980s.

But each conflict comes with its own set of variables, and in this one there is concern in both the Islamic world and the West over continuing any military action during Ramadan. Among the faithful of the world's 1.2 billion Muslims will be those who will feel especially aggrieved if fellow Muslims are under attack.

KHAYATT: I think (UNINTELLIGIBLE) people will go back to their own roots. It's a spiritual month, but they would feel they are targeted, they are defenseless, they are not understood, and they have to pray all the time.

LOWRIE: A feeling of vulnerability, he says, that may only add to a growing sense of divide between Muslims who would find fighting a special affront during Ramadan and those who say war is necessary to stop those who use religion as a pretext for terror and those who shield them.

Margaret Lowrie, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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