I was reading a response to one of the posts on here which had to do with fasting. One responder said that he had lived in Iran most of his life and he did not remember anyone being forced to fast. Hmmm, lets examine the facts.
1) Are food establishments open lets say between 7:30am-5:30pm?
2) Are the food establilshments allowed to stay open between 7:30am-5:30pm?
3) What happens if a prepared food serving establishment stays open?
4) What happens if a person walks on the street and chews on a cheese burger during ramadan between 7:30am-5:30pm?
5) Could non Muslims eat lunch during ramezan in public?
As far as I know, the answer to ALL of the above is NO. I am sure there are people on this site which would probably come back and say the IRI serves lunch for Jews and Bahais in the Masjids during ramezan.
In some other Muslim countries in the Mid East, for example Saudi Arabia, if you eat lunch during ramezan you’ll be jailed. If you are caught drinking alchohol, you’ll be killed.
Here in the Good O’l U.S. of A, we can do anything we want within the boundries of the law. If during Christmas I want to go in front of Bloomingdale and shout Jesus was a Homo every 20 seconds, I can. If I want to eat during lent I can.
People everywhere, including Iran want the exact same thing. FREEDOM to do as they please, not as a 1400 year old set of teachings and laws dictate.
To those who are fasting because they want to, Happy Ramadan.
