World Cup a problem for Muslims in holiest month
Print Edition
MUSLIMS in much of Asia began celebrating the holy month of Ramadan yesterday, but in Indonesia even threats by hardliners to raid “sinful” bars could not stop football fans heading to nightspots to watch the World Cup.
Across the Muslim world, the faithful fast from dawn to dusk and strive to be more pious during the month, which ends with the Eid holiday.
Indonesia has the world’s biggest Muslim population at around 225 million people.
Hardliners have pledged to raid bars that continue to sell alcohol, which Muslims are banned from drinking under Islamic law, or stay open too late. Authorities order bars and other nightspots to close earlier during the holy month.
Radical group the Islamic Defenders’ Front would “monitor any sinful activities in entertainment places, cafes and bars during Ramadan,” said Salim Alatas, the group’s chief in the capital Jakarta.
“If law enforcement officials do nothing about immoral activities, we will do anything we can to stop them, using our own methods,” he said.
But the threats did little to deter people in the football-crazy nation from heading out to catch the latest World Cup action. Bars that remained open in Jakarta were packed with locals and expatriates over the weekend.
Endika Setiadi Putra, 27, said that with the World Cup now in the knockout stages, the excitement would keep drawing people to watch the matches in bars even during Ramadan.
The holy season also presents a dilemma for Muslim players in the World Cup, as choosing to fast will affect the strict diets they usually have to follow.
The problem is most pressing for the team from Muslim-majority Algeria, who are facing a tough match against Germany.
For many other Indonesians, the start of the holy month of Ramadan was a time to be with their families or take part in special prayers, with thousands heading to Jakarta’s Istiqlal Mosque, the biggest in Southeast Asia, on Saturday evening.
Sri Lanka’s Muslims, who account for about 10 percent of the country’s 20 million population of mainly Buddhists, are set to observe a low-key Ramadan after a spate of recent religious attacks.
The Muslim Council of Sri Lanka, which groups nearly 50 Muslim organizations, said authorities had promised tighter security but many were still afraid of Buddhist extremist attacks after four people were killed in religious riots this month.
In Malaysia, Muslims, who account for 60 percent of the country’s 28 million people, were spending the late afternoon buying food at markets or meeting at restaurants to break the first fast together in the evening.
Ramadan begins when the first crescent of a new moon is sighted. The holy month was also starting across the Middle East, even as bloody conflicts rage in Iraq and Syria.
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