Thu, Nov 01, 2001 page6

• US pressured to decide on action over Ramadan

  QUANDARY Washington has to decide if it will continue bombing during the month-long period of fasting and risk alienating skeptical Muslims

  • AP
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  Ramadan's holiness never stopped Iraqi Muslims from shooting at Iranian Muslims in the 1980s, or Egyptian Muslims from gassing Yemeni co-religionists in the 1960s.

  Yet US-allied Muslim leaders are suggesting a ceasefire for the month in which Muslims fast in the daytime, feast at night and reflect on their relationships with God. This year, Ramadan starts in mid-November.

  A Western-led Ramadan assault in Afghanistan would be an affront at a time when the US needs to cultivate and not alienate skeptical Muslims, said Osama el-Baz, a top adviser to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Earlier, Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, a key ally, pleaded for restraint during Ramadan.

  The appeals have had an effect. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who bluntly rejected such an option just days ago -- "The Taliban and al-Qaeda are unlikely to take a holiday," he said -- appeared to be softening his message Tuesday.

  "We clearly are interested in the views and opinions and sensitivities and that each country has their own circumstance and their own neighborhood they live in," Rumsfeld said.

  Rumsfeld had just met with his British counterpart, Geoffrey Hoon, who has said a Ramadan pause deserves "serious consideration."

  Still, both men clearly did not relish robbing their troops of warm weather advantages and allowing enemies unsettled by more than three weeks of bombing time to reorganize.

  "It certainly wouldn't make military sense to afford the Taliban regime, which has been under very considerable pressure in recent times, the opportunity of regrouping, reorganizing during a predictable period of time," Hoon said.

  It's not clear yet how the US and Britain could strike a balance between laying down arms during Ramadan and maintaining pressure on the Taliban.

  One option would be to hold direct US and British fire while providing tactical support for the West's allies among the northern alliance. Ramadan has never stopped the Muslim rivals for Afghanistan's control from opening fire on one another.

  Indeed, some detect a double standard in asking the alliance to hold back.

  "Traditionally, there have been wars that have been fought by Arab nations during Ramadan," said Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

  The 1980 to 1988 Iran-Iraq war that killed or wounded more than a million people never paused for Ramadan. Nor did the 1963 to 1967 Egyptian engagement in Yemen, when Egypt used mustard gas against Yemeni tribesmen -- the first confirmed use of chemical weapons in the Middle East.

  Egypt and Syria launched the 1973 Arab-Israeli War during Ramadan -- one of its Arab sobriquets is "The Ramadan War" -- and on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur.

  "Perhaps we should tell our friends in Egypt that making a big deal of this is inconsistent," said David Schenker of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a thinktank that favors some Israeli positions.

  This is different, argues James Zogby of the Arab American Institute. Muslims fighting each other during Ramadan is one thing, he said, but Muslim nations such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia appearing to take orders from the US during the holy month is quite another. That could fuel Muslim perceptions of an arrogant US dictating its terms.

  "We're fighting for hearts and minds against an adversary that has attempted to use religion against us," Zogby said. "It is critical we consult with Muslim allies."

  Exactly the same concerns led the US to contemplate a suspension of fighting during the 1991 Gulf War, but the war ended in February, well before the holy month started that year, on March 17.

  There are no direct Koranic prescriptions against fighting during Ramadan, although the holiday is apparently drawn from the period when pre-Islamic Arab tribes observed a truce.

  Still, the spirit of the holiday -- a time of introspection and of compassion and generosity toward the less fortunate -- could exacerbate Muslim skepticism of the West's goals in Afghanistan, according to Shahrough Akhavi, a Middle East scholar at the University of South Carolina.

  Families come together for the holiday, he said, and it would be especially intolerable to Muslims if "collateral damage" -- civilian deaths -- included such a gathering.

  "This is a sensitive case," Akhavi said. "The United States is representative of the greatest power on earth."
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