In the modern era, the month of Ramadan, especially for Muslim communities in the West, is a month of religious spirituality. In Muslim tradition, however, it is also associated with being the month of jihad, the month in which Allah grants military victories to his believers.

This concept is often mentioned in Friday sermons and education curricula of the Middle East. For example, the latest Palestinian Authority schoolbooks written by Palestinian education experts remind the children that during Ramadan Muslims triumphed in battles throughout Islam’s history. An Islamic education textbook for sixth graders includes a lesson about designating Ramadan as the month of “great victories in Islamic history,” a “month of strength,” and a month of jihad. The lesson explains that the ultimate proof of this month’s importance is the “renowned Ramadan War of 1973 between the Arabs and Israel.” The emphasis is not on the fasting, but rather on the jihad. Other battles are also mentioned: the battle of Badr in 624, the conquests of Mecca in 630 and Andalusia in 711, the battle of Al-Zallaqa (in Andalusia) in 1086, and the battle of Ein Jalut in 1260, as well as the 1973 War.

In an article titled “Muslim Victories During Ramadan” Fuad Mukheimar, an Al-Azhar University lecturer and secretary-general of the Egyptian Sharia Association, wrote about this during the Ramadan following the attacks of September 11,2001: “The significant battles during the month of Ramadan in which Allah granted victory to Islam and Muslims were…the first battle between believers and infidels. The Muslims demonstrated rare heroism, setting their souls on the points of their lances and preferring martyrdom to remaining alive.”

From “The Mother of All Battles” mosque in Baghdad on Iraqi TV during Ramadan 2002, Sheik Bakr Abd Al-Razzaq Al-Samaraai gave a Friday sermon one month before the war: “…We need the grace of jihad of the soul … particularly in this difficult hour in which the Islamic nation [is] experiencing … the challenge of [forces] of disbelief of infidels, Jews, crusaders, Americans and Britons … We will scare you with the help of Allah… Who are you, O descendants of pigs and apes … Bush [you] little dwarf.”

Mr. Al-Samaraai added: “Jihad is an obligation of every individual Muslim … O [sons] of the Iraqi people, you are the warriors of jihad…I pray to Allah at this blessed hour … that he turns the month of Ramadan into a month of victory… O Allah, let the infidels fight each other, and dry their blood in their veins… shake the ground under their feet … ‘Allah Akbar’ to America … Allah will settle his account with you, Bush!”

In his Friday sermon broadcast on Palestinian Authority Television on October 31, 2003, Sheik Ibrahim Mudeiris discussed Ramadan: “Has the time not come for Muslim servants of Allah to say, ‘We will establish our state in Ramadan’ … ‘We will achieve victories in Ramadan as did our predecessors’ … ‘and liberate the blessed Al-Aqsa [Mosque] in the month of Ramadan?’ It is surprising that the soul of a Muslim … fasts during the day and prays and reads the Koran through the night does not call on him to fight the battle of jihad to liberate the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and the land of Palestine.”

Saudi cleric Hisham Khreisyat appeared on Saudi Al-Majd TV last year during Ramadan on October 17, 2004, explaining: “This great month [of Ramadan] is a month of fasting, a month of blessings and victory, a month of jihad and martyrdom. Dear viewers … [Ramadan] has always been the month of jihad … to this day. They have always been battles of victory and liberation … a month of martyrdom and martyrs. Thus we have been taught by history, by the Koran, and by this living nation who, Allah willing, will remain alive thanks to the blood of its martyrs, the sweat of its prisoners, the blood of its wounded, and the sacrifice of its sons.”

Following terrorist attacks in Europe this year, the issue of incitement to violence by Muslims in the West is currently the subject of debate this Ramadan. According to Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency, on September 30, 2005, England’s “Ramadan Radio” stations which for the past 13 years have had many of that country’s estimated 1.8 million Muslims tuning in while they broke their daily fast, have been warned by the government “not to include material which condones or glamorizes violent behavior.” The administrator for Radio Ramadan Birmingham, Ejaz Siddique, was quoted stating defiantly that he was “not going to shy away from talking about jihad.”

Mr. Stalinsky is the executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute.