Early in his career as a caravan raider and dictator of Yathrib (later changed to Medina), the "prophet" Mahomet, who concocted his new religion from both the Old and New Testaments, decided he had the power to "bind and to loose." The "holy month" of "Fajab" was approaching, and the caravans from Syria felt they were under immunity during such a time. Mahomet ordered an attack anyway.
When the Meccans wanted to kill their upstart rival, Mahomet, supposing him to be in Mecca, which was a city in which the shedding of blood was absolutely forbidden, they decided to suspend the law, and sent assassins to kill Mahomet. They found his uncle in his house, but Mahomet long gone. So much for the proscription against bloodshed on "holy" ground.
From time immemorial, attackers have taken advantage of the "holy times" of enemies, and used such times to mount surprise attacks. The Japanese knew the US fleet and army bases in Hawaii would be in a stand down condition on Sunday morning, December 7th, 1941 — that church services would be underway. They attacked.
When the combined armies of Syria and Egypt attacked Israel in 1973, they did so on "Yom Kippur," or The Day of Atonement, considered the most solemn holy day on the Jewish Calendar. For a time, Israel was overwhelmed. The Egyptians broached the famous "Bar Lev Line" along the Suez canal, and the Syrian tank columns were gaining ground in the Golan.
Emergency resupply from US forward NATO bases arrived just in time, and the Israeli army outflanked and encircled the Egyptian 3rd Army south of Cairo. Had they wanted to do so, the Israelis could have rolled into Cairo.
Furious over US transshipment of military equipment, the arabs imposed their 1973 oil embargo, which caused a panic in the US as gas prices soared, and millions waited up to 4 hours and more in lines at the pump.
So much for telling an enemy he is allowed "time out for prayers."
The excuse for urging the government to suspend bombing during Ramadan is that, if they continue to bomb during this "Holy month" (Muslims fast during daylight hours, but can eat to their heart’s content after sunset) is that Islam may become enraged with the US.
That would be terrible, indeed.
We would not want to them to be mad at us, would we? If they got mad at us, they might try to hijack airplanes, and crash them into our buildings.
