Teenage girl burnt alive by mother for marrying by choice

Pregnant woman killed by parents for marrying by choice

Girl burnt alive for refusing proposal

Man burnt by acid attack for refusing proposal

Non-Muslim elderly man beaten till bleeding by policeman

Senator abused and allegedly tried to assault a social activist on live television

TV host led on a religious scholar to threaten with extreme violence another TV host for taking up a ‘sensitive’ issue

TV host mimicked what a girl looks like after committing suicide while many women participants cheered him on...

This is Pakistan, just two weeks into the holy month of Ramadan.

Not to forget that these are just the cases that have made glaring headlines. How many didn’t make it to the media or even out of the crime scene, we will never know. And the irony that these crimes were committed by Muslims in Ramadan is beyond insane.

Where is the sanctity of Ramadan?

We claim it is the holiest of months. We claim, because our religion tells us, that this is the month where Muslims are ordained to spend time on self-restraint, self-reflection, on their personal connection with the Creator, doing good deeds excessively while totally refraining from bad ones.

We claim this is the month of worship and goodwill.

We claim that our Prophet said:

“Fasting is not only from food and drink, fasting is to refrain from obscene (acts). If someone verbally abuses you or acts ignorantly toward you, say (to them) ‘I am fasting; I am fasting.’”

Please tell me how does beating/killing other people and totally flying off the handle over disagreements have a place among all this that we believe Ramadan stands for?

On a global level, ISIS or Daesh has given a clarion call for its followers to launch Ramadan attacks all over the West. In an audio recording released on May 21, ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammed al Adnani called for "a month of hurt" in the United States as well as Europe. 

Oh, but Daesh doesn’t represent the true Islam or Pakistan, you say. Why should we care?

Well, because the establishment of our very own Laal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa, who are comfortably seated in the heart of Islamabad and vow to bring Sharia to Pakistan, have pledged allegiance to Daesh and have written letters asking it to invade the country. Would they be willing to defy this call for a ‘month of hurt’ in Pakistan and the world over? Or would they welcome it?

We also claim, because our religion has told us, that Satan is chained for the entirety of this month. In other words, Ramadan is the time of year where you find out how terribly evil you can be,on your own, without a smidgen of help from the dreaded Satan.

And that’s the terrifying part when I look at all this growing lust for violence in our country.

Were these Muslim parents not observing the holy month of not being a cold-hearted criminal while they murdered their daughters? Did they think that by killing their‘disobedient’ child, they’ll earn a place in heaven?

Did the policeman think that by abusing the old man and forcing him to ‘respect’ Ramadan, he himself would become a better Muslim? Yes, we have this Ehtram-e-Ramzan law, and while it deserves to be respected as the law of the land as it is until it’s amended or nullified, it doesn’t call for beating or abusing the violator. It calls for an arrest. So, why the violence? Ramadan is a month of our self-control, not the non-Muslims.

Were the religious scholars/TV anchors/participants too hungry to act civilized? Couldn’t they have made their point in a refined and educated manner without the violent/misogynist/ludicrous nuances because that’s supposed to be the way of Islam?

To the aggressors and their apologists I ask very earnestly: Where has all your Musalmaniyat and Islamiyat gone?

Is this how you observe the sacred month?

If fasting is such a trying experience that the only way you’ll make it to Iftar time is by relentlessly ridiculing or beating someone to a pulp or a deathbed, go and hog on till you die of gluttony because you’ve totally missed the point of starving yourself for the will of Allah.

There are people who love to preach about the holiness of this month but will waste no time and breath to demonize someone for using the word Ramadan instead of Ramzan and vice versa. I wonder how their argument over linguistics serves their observance of RAMADAN – which actually is the CORRECT pronunciation.

What are we doing? Where is the sanctity of Ramadan? Where is the sanctity of Islam?

What happened to the true meaning of ‘I am fasting, I am fasting’…?