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Friday, July 20, 2012

A blessed (and safe) Ramadan to all.

Ramadan starts today! Or rather, this morning when I woke up reluctantly at 3am to eat a bowl of chocolate-orange muesli (sorry, the obsession with food gets worse when I fast) with the Dutchman. That being done in 15 minutes, after fajr prayer we promptly went back to sleep.

Source: Taste.com
I get chills just looking at this.

Not before I looked out the window, and saw some three cyclists passing by.

This year will be my first time fasting in a non-tropical environment and since it's summer, daylight lasts 18.5 hours and will reduce slightly by the end of the month. Needless, I'm slightly apprehensive.

The long fast is the least of my worries though. I should be more worried about the supposed increase in the levels of crime in the coming four weeks.

Say what?

From a news report ('Dutch Police Reinforced for Ramadan Crime Wave') published on 13 July and promptly pulled from Dutch news sites for, I don't know, constructing Muslims as nocturnal beasts (now only available in French):
The police in Utrecht and the Hague in the Netherlands are going to reinforce their presence in the streets Ramadan. The objective is to avoid criminality progressing at the heart of the Muslim community during the Muslim fast.

...In the Hague, the police will have a greater presence in the evening and night, because that is when the Muslims can eat and are thus "more active". The deputy mayor of the Dutch city explaints that "for Ramadan provisions have to be taken to guarantee calm and security," as during other great events.

Fun fact: The phrase "Ramadan-crime" was actually coined by the king of discourse, Geert Wilders!

Seems like I'll have to keep a close watch (and my fingers on 112) on those nocturnal cyclists when I wake up for sahur tomorrow.

PS: Okay okay, so my Ramadan Resolution #1 was to be less sarcastic. This is not helping. Onward!

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