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CNN Saturday Morning News

Arab Nations Have Been at War During Ramadan in the Past

Aired November 03, 2001 - 09:38   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.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Muslims will celebrate Ramadan in mid-November, and Pakistan's president is hoping that the bombing campaign in Afghanistan will stop during that time.

But as CNN's Garrick Utley reports, war seldom takes holidays.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARRICK UTLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When the new moon rises in the ninth month of the Islamic calender, it will be Ramadan. And on the 27th day of that month, according to their faith, Muslims will recall how on that night near the Arabian town of Mecca, the Angel Gabriel descended to pass on the commandments of God to the Prophet Muhammad.

Those commandments to Muslims include making the pilgrimage to Mecca, in today's Saudi Arabia, at least once in a lifetime, praying five times a day, and fasting during the month of Ramadan.

(on camera): From dawn to dark, here in a mosque, at home, or at work, every adult Muslim is obliged to forego food, drink, and sexual relations. The Koran tells Muslims to make these sacrifices so that you become self-restrained.

But does that self-restraint extend to war?

(voice-over): When Saladin, Islam's greatest warrior, defeated the last of the Christian crusaders in the Middle East, it was during Ramadan. More recent memory reminds us that when Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in 1973, it was on the most holy day in Judaism, Yom Kippur, but it was also during Ramadan.

And when Iran and Iraq, two Muslim neighbors, waged their long, bloody war in the 1980s, they didn't stop for Ramadan.

(on camera): So what should the United States do come November 17 and the start of Ramadan? Call time out in the war, so as not to offend Muslims even more?

(voice-over): Early warnings are being sent.

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Needless to say, the Taliban and al Qaeda are unlikely to take a holiday. We have an obligation to defend the American people, and we intend to work diligently to do that.

UTLEY: And so it appears likely that war will continue through Ramadan, as it has so often, ever since the Prophet Muhammad and his army, more than a millennium ago, marched on Mecca and captured it for Islam, during Ramadan.

Garrick Utley, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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