Note from Rafik Beekun: I don’t see why it is a dilemma for these Olympians. Islam allows people who are working in very harsh conditions to postpone their fasts. As some of the Muslim athletes below indicate, they have received the Islamic opinion from some scholars that they can postpone their fast during the preparation for and the Olympic competition itself. I would agree with that opinion.
By Richard Allen Greene and Aroub Abdelhaq, CNN
London (CNN)– Olympic judo competitor Hemeed Al Drie plans to sin during the Games in London, he admits with a grin.
“God is merciful and compassionate, even when our sins are many,” said Al Drie, kneeling on a mat while martial artists hurled each other to the floor around him.
Al Drie’s sin isn’t what you might expect. It’s that he is planning to eat and drink while the sun is up during the Olympics, even thought the Games fall smack in the middle of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Observant Muslims are supposed to fast during Ramadan, abstaining from all food and drink, even water, during daylight hours, then eating and drinking after sundown. Fasting for the month is a major religious obligation, one of the Five Pillars of Islam.
But Al Drie, 19, knows that fasting on days when he has up to six judo matches against the world’s best competitors would doom his chances of winning.
“If you don’t eat and you enter a competition, you might faint,” he said. That would lead to instant elimination.
So Al Drie is going to stick to his normal competition diet.
“Maybe some people will fast, and that’s good for them. But for me, I can’t risk losing any of my matches,” he said.
Al Drie, who is from the United Arab Emirates, isn’t alone in facing the Ramadan dilemma. It’s not clear exactly how many Muslim athletes are competing in the Olympics this year, but more than one in five people around the world – about 23% – is Muslim, according to estimates by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
Religious experts in Saudi Arabia determine the starting date of Ramadan each year based on the phase of the moon.
Muslim athletes face a particular challenge because there are so many hours of daylight in London during the Games, says sports nutritionist Hala Barghout. [Please click here to read the remainder of the article.]
Related articles
- London 2012: Sherif Farrag, American Muslim, Debates How Best To Compete … (huffingtonpost.com)
- Olympians’ Dilemma: ‘Starve My Soul’ For Ramadan? (npr.org)
- Ramadan traditions with a digital twist (googleblog.blogspot.com)
- Google gets serious about Ramadan, with live YouTube streams from Mecca, Google+ Hangouts and more (thenextweb.com)
- Muslim month of fasting sets in (english.ruvr.ru)
The Islamic Workplace 
Posted on July 22, 2012
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