A curious and timely tale about the increasing disconnect between Muslims and Western leaders:
Followers of Moroccan blogger Ahmed, who writes on Alash? [Ar] (Why?), know he is fond of the art of satire. Earlier this month he published a post about a supposed announcement by the French President Nicolas Sarkozy [Ar] of a series of measures to “encourage” French Muslims to follow a French version of this year’s Ramadan.
The blogger writes quoting his imaginary Sarkozy:
اخواني المواطنين، المسلم الÙرنسي هو Ùرنسي قبل أن يكون مسلما وعليه Ùإن قهوة Ø§Ù„ØµØ¨Ø§Ø Ù…Ø¹ الهلالية (كرواصون) تقليد Ùرنسي عريق لا يجب التخلي عليه. لذا وانطلاقا من Ùتاوى الأزهر Øول Ùقه الأقليات Ùانه يجوز للمسلم الÙرنسي الصائم ان يبدأ صباØÙ‡ بقهوة مع هلالية كغيره من أبناء الشعب الÙرنسي على الساعة الثامنة قبل انطلاق العمل.
“Fellow citizens, “The French Muslim is French before being a Muslim. Therefore, the old French tradition of early morning breakfast with coffee and croissant should not be abandoned [during the month of Ramadan]. And based on fatwas (religious edicts) from Al-Azhar University and their jurisprudence concerning [Muslim] minorities, it is permissible for fasting French Muslims to start the day with the morning coffee and croissant like all other French people do, at 8 A.M. before leaving for work.”…
What started as a joke is now being peddled around Middle Eastern blogs and online forums. Seeing his article being presented as a factual account, with no reference to the source, the blogger updated his original post writing a disclaimer and warning that “this article is a satirical account of an event that did not happen. The objective was to discuss the relationship between Sarkozy [”¦] and the Muslim minority in France.”