In a blog post on Saturday I wrote about efforts by some of the Arab states to criminalise anyone – non-Muslims included – who is seen eating, drinking or smoking during the daylight hours of Ramadan.
Compulsory fasting, as I suggested on Saturday, mis-uses the power of the state in order to maintain a public facade of religiosity regardless of what happens behind closed doors. In that sense, it's opportunistic and hypocritical. It also overlooks the fact that fasting is supposed to be an exercise in self-discipline, not a test of people's obedience to authority. [Brian Whitaker] Read more
