After a lesson well learned the night before, iftar last night was much more moderate -- darling baizura had gifted me some dates, so i broke fast with that, plus a little rice and sweet & sour chicken meal i whipped up over the stove. Incredible how good food you cook with your own hands tastes, especially when you're hungry.
Tarawih prayers followed, and during the tazkirah (literally translated it means, "reminder" -- but its usually a short speech of morals from the imam) just before isyak prayers, the imam spoke about the sacrifices Muslims have made over the history of Islam, including the many wars that have been fought during ramadhan. The war against the Tartars in 658 Hijrah was one of the wars mentioned.
I'm proud of what Islam has had to do to protect itself; but i guess the pacifist in me disagrees with many of the things we've done in the past as part of that effort -- in the battle against the Tartars, Amir Qutuz, the leader of the remaining Muslim forces slaughtered the ambassadors sent by the enemy. Granted, their sole purpose was to insult and incite fear in the Muslim camp, but killing them strikes me as being particularly bloodthirsty.
I guess times were different then, as they are now. Or are they: we've got Muslims kidnapping the head of CARE in Iraq. That just strikes me as so incredibly stupid -- a person who has devoted 30 years of her life helping your people, and she gets kidnapped, perhaps to be held at ransom.
Islam means "peace" -- it often strikes me as very ironic that so much of our history is marked by violence, death and killing.
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