There’s No Such Thing as a “Ramadan Truce”

With the start of Ramadan, millions of Muslims around the world begin a month of introspection, worship, service and renewed commitment to community. But we should not overlook another aspect of Ramadan that has been a tradition through the ages—the holy month as a time for war. This has special relevance this year, when so many well-meaning observers will call on Israel to suspend its military operations against the Islamist extremists of Hamas, who—of all segments of Palestinian society—will appreciate the history of Muslim armies waging war during Ramadan and the irony of asking non-Muslim combatants to respect some sort of “Ramadan truce.” The 1973 Arab-Israeli war may be known to Jews as the Yom Kippur War, but it is widely known in the Arab world as “Harb Ramadan”—the Ramadan War—given that Anwar Sadat dispatched Egyptian forces to cross the Suez Canal during the holy month. But it is only a relatively recent example of Arab or Muslim armies waging war during this month...

Read the full article on the Hill website.