m/v/k overeenkomsten/verschillen/oorlog/vrede etc.

What strikes me again and again is that amount of rules and regulations in some religions: you have to believe this and that, pray every day,
give money and help to the poor and needy, go on pilgrimages, fast in this or that way, behave & walk & talk this or that way all the time?!

Ramadan has just ended for countless people in many countries and these last years one hears more about fanatics than ever before from what-ever religion, sect & denomination, often without really knowing what is hidden behind all those ages full of conquests and 'religious' warfare ...

Some religions try to dominate every part of life of their followers from birth till death: what one sees is chaotic mixtures of economic situations.

Muhammad at first accepted the Day of Atonement as a day of fast. It was known as 'ASHURA' ("the fast of the tenth", a synonym for the Jewish Day of Atonement, which falls, according tom the Hebrew calendar, on the tenth of TISHRI. Only later when he turned his back on Juda-ism did Muhammad institute the fast of the month of RAMADAN which occurs during the ninth month of the Moslem lunar year. However,
'Ashura' has been retained as a voluntary fast and observed not on the original tenth of Tishri but rather onnthe tenth of the Moslem Muharram.

Ramadan has been held by scholars to be a Moslem counterpart of the Christian LENT, but also resembles Jewish observance of the month of
ELUL as a period of TESHUVAH or penitence (inkeer/bekering/repentance/'antwoord' aan g d). To this day, pious Jews still keep the forty days from the beginning of Elul until YOM KIPPUR as a season for fasting and prayer. The rabbinical explanation for this observance is that it com-memorates the forty days which Mosheh spent on Mount Sinai before giving the Torah to Israel (& 40 days of Yeshu between start & finish?!

The duty of JIHAD, then waging of a "Holy War", has been raised to the dignity of a sixth canonical obligation, especially by the descendants of the Kharijites: to the Moslem, the world is divided into regions under Islamic control, the DAR AL-ISLAM, & regions not subjected as yet, the
DAR AL-HARB. Between this 'area of warfare' and the Moslem-dominated part of the world there can be no peace some think. Practical con-siderations may induce the Muslim leaders to conclude an armistice, but the obligation to conquer and, if possible, convert never lapses ...

Nor can territory once under Muslim rule be lawfully yielded to the unbeliever. Legal theory has gone so far as ton define as DAR AL-ISLAM any area where at least one Muslim custom is still observed. Thanks to this concept the Moslem is required to subdue the infidel, and he who dies in the path of ALLAH is considered a martyr and assured of Paradise and of unique privileges there (virgins, lekkere hapjes & slokjes e.d.) ...