Some majority-Muslim countries have laws mandating observance of Ramadan; Morocco for instance has Article 222 which states that:
A person commonly known to be Muslim who violates the fast in a public place during Ramadan, without having one of the justifications allowed by Islam, shall be punished by one to six months of prison and a fine.
There’s clearly no leeway there for someone who is “commonly known” to be from a Muslim background to have either left Islam entirely or to be a relaxed, secular sort of Muslim who decides for herself whether or not to fast during Ramadan. That’s pretty heavy-duty compulsion, if you ask me.
Ramadan clearly is widely treated as compulsory, sometimes at the state level and much more at the familial level (which tends to bleed into the neighborhood and the “community” – the notional, non-physical community as well as the literal neighborhood-surrounding one). [The Freethinker] Read more
