What happens if you're Muslim in Alaska during Ramadan?

I have no idea, but I would posit that a Muslim would use as a reference point whatever time zone Mecca is in.

Ramadan this year (2011) will be essentially most of the month of August.. and fortunately that’s a time of year where sunrise/sunset in Alaska is about like this:

Sunrise: 6:57am
Sunset: 9:20pm

I have Muslim friends and coworkers here in MN (we we’re not even as far north as like, Nordic countries) and they seem to manage to fast the long days we have.. They eat early in the day (before sunrise) – work all day and then break their fast again late at night.

There are various websites that will provide them with time of day prayers, as well, for their locations wherever that may be on the planet.

Sarah Palin can see Muslims from her house.

lol

No I have no idea though. Maybe….. maybe they could just say like 9pm-6am or something?

If the rules are obeyed north of the polar circle and Ramadan is in the May, June, July time frame people would simply die from dehydration. However, when Muslims feel the effects of dehydration they are in fact sick. And when they are sick, they can drink water and eat. Women could also opt to get pregnant north of the polar circle. They would be exempt too.

A far more serious problem are construction workers in Phoenix during summer. They have to drink at least two gallons of water to stay healthy. But here again, when they get sick, the rule doesn’t apply. So why get sick in the first place?

I had a Muslim friend working in Ireland years ago. They had four hours of dark a day during Ramadan. He was restricted to eating during those four hours. His mother came to visit him, just to make sure…

@6rant6 – This mother doesn’t seem to realize that the rules were made for people in Mecca and Medina. At the time people had no idea that latitude can have a significant impact on the duration of daylight. To me it’s foolish to observe it so strictly in northern countries in the summer.

Observance is, ironically, subjective – I also don’t have a clear idea, but I think that @JilltheTooth has given a profoundly solid answer – from both a practical and a religious standpoint.

Awesome answer, @JilltheTooth!

@mattbrowne You must be pretty full of yourself to call into question the way someone else practices their religion, if you ask me. Well since they were Muslim, I’m going to defer to their understanding despite your calling it foolish. He was not the only Pakistani in Dublin by the way.

The most common strategy is to base the beginning and end of the fast on the sunrise and sunset of the nearest town that does have a clearly defined day and night. That still makes for a very long day, but puts it in the realm of possibility.

But the Qur’an does explicitly state that God doesn’t want anyone to exceed his limits: “Allah intends every facility for you; He does not want to put you to difficulties.” If fasting poses an insurmountable hardship at a given time, it’s acceptable to make up the fast days at another time (presumably not during the arctic winter).

http://www.adn.com/2010/11/29/1578984/alaska-life-a-big-change-for-muslim.html this article in the anchorage daily news addresses your question, but you have to read a little ways into it. It sounds like different muslims observe it differently. I know the Orthodox jewish church up here (I live in Ak) observes sabbath with sunrise and sunset, and even though it’s inconvenient they stick to the letter of the law.

@Blonderaven, jewish churches are called synagogues. For some reason.

@6rant6 – Christians do a lot of foolish things too. Not drinking for 20 hours in the summer is foolish to me. Others might not see it as foolish and I can live with that.

@mattbrowne I believe they can take water, just not food.

Hmmm, my previous answer is no longer posted, I guess the frozen dooky to your leg and better get insulated diapers was a bit offensive, basically what I said was invent your own sect of muslim that fits your environment, christians do it all the time, look at how many different churches exhist today, instead of LDS muslims could have FSA frozen seed of Alla!