# Can Ramadan be suspended in time of war? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 21, 2012, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-ramadan-be-suspended-in-time-of-war/628911 "2012-07-21T00:07:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2012, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-ramadan-be-suspended-in-time-of-war/628911/21 "2012-07-24T14:26:28Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I doubt The Prophet foresaw the advent of 24-hour 7-Elevens. Or vampires. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2012, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-ramadan-be-suspended-in-time-of-war/628911/22 "2012-07-24T14:42:42Z")
My friends - Muslims in Michigan, coincidentally enough - often gained weight during Ramadan, because they were eating too much at night. ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2012, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-ramadan-be-suspended-in-time-of-war/628911/23 "2012-07-24T14:57:25Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > [One of the authors](http://www.chicagofed.org/webpages/people/mazumder_bhashkar.cfm) appears to be Muslim. Bhashkar Mazumder is, in all probability, not a Muslim. Mazumder is, AFAIK, not an Islamic name, I _think_ it is Bengali Hindu. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2012, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-ramadan-be-suspended-in-time-of-war/628911/24 "2012-07-24T15:07:33Z")
You can’t suspend Ramadan any more than you can suspend February. Ramadan is a month. Now, fasting, on the other hand, is a religious observance. Regarding the bit about pregnant women fasting when they should be exempt: I suspect that this might very well be like what I’ve seen with some members of other faiths. Even when their religious leaders tell them that they are exempt, or in some cases even prohibited, from fasting, some members still fast. Maybe they do it out of habit, maybe they do it because they think they know better than “that young whippersnapper rabbi/priest/bishop/imam/etc.,” or maybe they do it because their parents will castigate them for not following the religious rules to a T as the parents incorrectly interpret the rules. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2012, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-ramadan-be-suspended-in-time-of-war/628911/25 "2012-08-05T10:23:08Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Perhaps a silly extension, but do Muslims working the night shift during Ramadan fast from dusk until dawn? I happened to be speaking to someone in Abu Dhabi just now and asked this. The answer is that no they don’t. Indeed working at night is preferred as it’s 45 degrees there right now. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2012, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-ramadan-be-suspended-in-time-of-war/628911/26 "2012-08-05T10:33:02Z")
And just to say, we’re well into Ramadan, but the Muslim separatists in our deep South have been shooting and bombing like there’s no tomorrow. I believe nine policemen were shot dead in one day. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2012, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-ramadan-be-suspended-in-time-of-war/628911/27 "2012-08-05T10:39:23Z")
Missed the Edit window: And [here’s today’s attack](http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/306068/policeman-wounded-in-pattani-attack). Or one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2012, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-ramadan-be-suspended-in-time-of-war/628911/28 "2012-08-05T11:07:51Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > You can’t suspend Ramadan any more than you can suspend February. I can suspend February if I want to - it’s in the Constitution. Stop trying to trample my 9th Amendment rights! ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2012, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-ramadan-be-suspended-in-time-of-war/628911/29 "2012-08-05T12:38:35Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > It’s perfectly okay to screw up on Ramadan. Most people do at some point or another- I’ve seen more than one faster mindlessly eat a piece of candy and then pull an “Ohhhhhhh shit!” " A few days ago. I ordered from the orderly at work. And biscuits. I was very busy at the time. He brought them. I drank the tea. And had a couple of the biscuits. Only then I realised. Its no big deal. Well it is, but more of a “damn that was stupid of me” than a “I am going to hell” [QUOTE=Hari Seldon] In 1999, the Moslem students at McGill were upset because they were to take their December final exams during Ramadan. In Montreal in December, the sun rises around 7:35 and sets around 4:15, so fasting requires only skipping lunch. My attitude would have been suck it up or ignore Ramadan, but the university authorities were concerned enough to make some accommodation. It would have been different had there been exams in June, when there are more than 15 hours of daylight [/QUOTE] Your attitude is what I think would go in most muslim majority countries. I know I have given exams when fasting. And done quite well. In other news. Its nearly 6 pm now and an hour to go. Somebody please kill me now. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2012, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-ramadan-be-suspended-in-time-of-war/628911/30 "2012-08-22T16:14:26Z")
And to mark the end of Ramadan, [10 men torched a Honda dealership](http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/308859/south-small-hl-editing) in our deep South early this morning. (The managing director of the dealership had a car bomb go off in front of a hotel he owns earlier this month.) It’s been a particularly violent Ramadan down that way this year, so no, Ramadan does not have to interfere with insurgencies and such. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2012, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-ramadan-be-suspended-in-time-of-war/628911/31 "2012-08-22T16:49:32Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > Ramadan is a spiritual exercise and a time for community bonding. It’s not something God requires in the sense that an angry god might require a virgin to be sacrificed to the volcano. But… How can we afford to take that chance, now that you’ve raised this issue?! ---
**Author:** ![FuzzyOgre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@FuzzyOgre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FuzzyOgre)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2012, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-ramadan-be-suspended-in-time-of-war/628911/32 "2012-08-22T16:58:51Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > Not eating for 16 hours, especially by a pregnant woman with high metabolic demands can lead to [ketone production](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketone_bodies) by the body. Ketones cross the placenta. And, [they are teratogenic](http://www.springerlink.com/content/ueylq89hwx877cvl/) (link is only one of many, many references including those on human teratogenesis). As an aside, the placenta only becomes active after 2-3 months. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2012, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-ramadan-be-suspended-in-time-of-war/628911/33 "2012-08-22T17:29:16Z")
I’ve heard (no cite, sorry) that violence in Muslim nations tends to follow a cycle of increasing when Ramadan falls in the summer and decreasing when it falls in the winter. The hypothesis is that the longer fasts make people more disagreeable. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-ramadan-be-suspended-in-time-of-war/628911.md?page=1)