Florida Fast-A-Thon Hooks Unwary Infidels

by Hugh Fitzgerald

“Fasting” during Ramadan means eating (a lot) at night.

This article dates from well over a year ago, but Ramadan is once again upon us, and this article does not date, as the dawah it depicts always follows the same pattern, even now amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Angie Suarez only expected a free meal when she went to Fast-A-Thon [held at the University of Florida] for the first time last year.

The 20-year-old UF public health junior was pleasantly surprised to learn about Islam and what fasting means to Muslims, she said. She came back to the O’Connell Center with a group of friends and an appetite Thursday night.

“It was about so much more than food,” Suarez said.

Was it really? What else was this Fast-a-Thon about? The free meal was what drew her when she attended the event for the first time two years, and was “pleasantly surprised to learn about Islam” and “what fasting means to Muslims.” But what did she “learn about Islam” that caused her to be “pleasantly surprised”? She doesn’t say. And what does she think such fasting means to Muslims? Fasting during Ramadan is intended to increase self-control in all areas, including food, sleeping, sex and the use of time. It’s a time when the gates of Heaven are open, and the gates of Hell are closed. Muslims believe that their good actions bring a greater reward during this month than at any other time of year, because this month has been blessed by Allah. Violent jihad is one of those “good actions,” but I doubt Angie Suarez was told that.

Muslims also believe that it is easier to do good in this month because the devils have been chained in Hell, and so can’t tempt believers. This doesn’t mean that Muslims will not behave badly, but that any evil that they do comes from within themselves, without additional encouragement from Satan.

Almost all Muslims try to give up bad habits during Ramadan, and some will try to become better Muslims by praying more or reading the Qur’an.

I suspect that Angie Suarez thinks that Muslims fast as a sign of solidarity with the poor, but it is not about solidarity with the poor; the solidarity is only with other Muslims, rich and poor, observing Ramadan. The month of fasting is about Muslims improving their own self-control, submitting more fully to Allah, and deepening their commitment to Islam by reading the Qur’an.

More than 450 students ate a traditional Mediterranean dinner during Islam on Campus’ 15th annual charity fundraiser.

The group raised more than $4,000 for Islamic Circle of North America Relief’s Transitional Women’s Homes in Florida and the Edhi Foundation, a social welfare organization in Pakistan, said Sana Nimer, the group’s president.

The Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) is a group known for the suspect company it keeps. At its September 2018 convention, it offered a slew of antisemitic and misogynistic speakers. These included the defender of Hamas Linda Sarsour, Nazir Ahmed, Ustadh Abdelrahman Murphy, Boonaa Mohammed, and the imam Siraj Wahhaj, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Did  Angie Suarez know about this group for which she was helping to raise money? Of course not. She was told it was a charitable organization. The precise nature of this “charity” and the company it keeps was not discussed. Nor did any of the other Infidels who came for the food, and stayed for the lesson on fasting in Islam, apparently have any doubts about the ICNA. Why would they?

Islam on Campus will donate to the charities on behalf of each student who signed up to fast from sunrise to sunset.

“We choose to fast because it unites us with those who are less fortunate,” Nimer said.

Does Nimer feel “united” with “less fortunate” non-Muslims, the people her Qur’an tells her — at 5:51 — that she must not take as friends, “for they are friends only with each other,” and still worse, these non-Muslims are “the most vile of created beings” (98:6)? Ramadan itself has nothing to do with uniting those fasting “with those who are less fortunate.” It is, rather, all about improving oneself as a Muslim, exhibiting self-control in all areas, ideally reading through the entire Qur’an during the month of Ramadan to deepen one’s commitment to the faith, and demonstrating submission to Allah. It has nothing to do with “uniting” those fasting “with those who are less fortunate.”

Students ate hummus as an appetizer; Kefta, a traditional beef dish, with rice; a Mediterranean salad as an entree; and cake for dessert.

The majority of students who attended were not Muslim, said Mariam Abouzied, an executive board member.

No, of course not. Muslim students do not need to attend  this evening of hummus-kefta-and-rice propaganda; they’re already hooked. Some may show up to help the propaganda effort among the unwary Infidel students.

“I believe that Fast-A-Thon will show that anyone can make a difference,” she said. “College students in Florida can be impacting lives across the world.”

Yes, they will be “impacting” lives by innocently contributing their mite to the Islamic Council of North America, which has given a platform to Hamas-linked speakers, and is itself (as stated above) an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center trial.

The dinner also featured guest speakers UF President Kent Fuchs and Imam Abdurrahman Sykes, a Muslim community leader from Orlando.

Sykes began fasting as a Christian 46 years ago, he told students. He converted to Islam after researching fasting in different religions and in Muslim communities.

“Fasting involves more than just being hungry and thirsty,” Sykes said.

Abdurrahman Sykes converted to Islam “after researching fasting in different religions.” What was it about Ramadan that he found so appealing? Was it the requirement of sunrise-to-sunset total abstinence? Was it the supposed “spirituality” of reading the Qur’an during that month? Did Abdurrahman Sykes, in the decades since he converted to Islam, learn anything more beyond the Five Pillars? What did he discover about Islam since he became a Muslim? Did he learn about the 109 verses in the Qur’an that command Muslims to wage violent Jihad against the Unbelievers? Did he learn the verses that specifically order Muslims to “strike terror” in the hearts of the Infidels? Did he learn that Muslim husbands may “beat” their disobedient wives? Did he come across any of the two dozen antisemitic verses in the Qur’an? Did he learn that the Qur’an describes non-Muslims as “the most vile of created beings”? Did he learn that Muhammad personally took part in killing the 600-900 bound prisoners of the Banu Qurayza? Or that he wished aloud for the death (“Who will rid me of this woman?”) of three people who had mocked or criticized him, and his loyal followers, not needing to be told directly, carried out his wishes, killing Asma bint Marwan, Abu ‘Afak, and Ka’b bin al-Ashraf? Do you think Abdurrahman Sykes has remained so focused on fasting in Islam that he never learned any of that? Do you think he knows that Muhammad, the Perfect Man (al-insan al kamil) and Model of Conduct (uswa hasana) consummated his marriage to Aisha when she was nine and he was fifty-four? Do you think Abdurrahman Sykes knows that Muhammad boasted that “war is deceit” and that “I have been made victorious through terror”?

The University of Florida students who showed up for the free food at the Fast-A-Thon (offered, of course, after sunset) learned, it seems, nothing of substance, nothing about Jihad, or terrorizing the enemy, or Islamic views of Unbelievers, or about the treatment of women in Islam. These uninformed students did not know, and wouldn’t have thought to inquire, about the ICNA, the suspect “charitable organization” that they were supporting, and its ties to such people as Siraj Wahhaj and Linda Sarsour.

One can only hope that some of the University of Florida students, after the event, and possibly having been alerted by articles similar to this one, began to truly educate themselves about Islam, by reading the Qur’an and some of the Hadith, and commentaries such as Spencer’s Blogging the Qur’an, to find out about what they were so carefully not told about Islam during those free Fast-A-Thon dinners — of hummus, and beef kefta, and rice.

First published in Jihad Watch.