If Muslims are somewhat sceptical about Ramadan greetings from President George W. Bush, it is understandable.

While attempts by the leader of the United States to reach out to Muslims in his country and around the world, are appreciated in the context of the imperative of inter-faith dialogue and understanding, Muslims are deeply disappointed that Washington has displayed an utter unwillingness to comprehend their plea for justice and fair play.  What is the meaning of sharing an Iftar (breaking of the fast) meal with Muslim diplomats in Washington, when the same President turns a blind eye to the terrible atrocities committed by the Israeli army in occupied
Palestine?  What is the point of eulogising peace as an ideal that Islam shares with other faiths, when Washington is preparing to go to war, without any justification, against a Muslim nation which has already been crushed and crippled by 12 years of US-British engineered sanctions?

Doesn't Washington realise that the double standards and selective persecution that characterise its foreign policy in the Middle East, where Israel is favoured while Palestine and Iraq are discriminated against, have created a huge reservoir of anger and even hatred towards the superpower among ordinary Arab and Muslims?  Until and unless Washington is prepared to be fair and even-handed in the Middle East, Ramadan greetings and Iftar meals will have no effect upon the Muslim masses.

The masses know what Washington is up to.  They know that Washington is determined to control and dominate the world.  Control over oil, a lot of which flows beneath the feet of Muslims, is part of that hegemonic design.  And the masses know that Israeli interests play a major role in shaping US foreign policy in the Middle East.  The niceties of diplomacy will not deceive the masses any more.

Instead of pulling the wool over their eyes with Ramadan greetings and Iftar meals, the Muslim masses hope and pray that George Bush and the hawks in Washington will try to understand the two simple messages of
the Fast.  The Fast underscores the importance of restraint in our lives.  By refraining from food and drink during waking hours for a whole month, the Muslim begins to appreciate the significance of exercising restraint over one's desires.  Washington whose lust for power knows no limit should also learn to exercise restraint.
Restraining one's power especially when there is no one else to check one's power, is an act of responsibility.  It is a supreme virtue in Islam as in other religions.

The virtue of restraint embodied in the practice of the Fast is also a way of inculcating in the human person same sympathy and empathy for the poor and the hungry.  It is high time that Washington realised that there are millions and millions of poor and hungry people all over the world who will be driven into greater misery and suffering if it continues to pursue its militaristic policies.  The more hegemonic it becomes, the greater the agony of the oppressed and the downtrodden.

In the month of Ramadan -- as in all other months -- the Muslim prays that God will open the hearts of the arrogant and the mighty so that they will become conscious of the suffering and misery they have caused and turn over a new leaf.  That would be the prayer of the Palestinian and the Iraqi child and indeed all those who are victims of Washington's hegemonic power.

This then is the real meaning of Ramadan which we should convey to Bush and the coterie that seeks to rule the world from Washington and London, and, of course, Tel Aviv.  Ramadan is a warning to the arrogant who
exercise power without restraint.  Ramadan is the bond that unites the upright with the hungry and the oppressed as they struggle for justice and freedom.
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Dr. Chandra Muzaffar is the President of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST)