Ramadan truce would ratify bin Laden's 'holy war' claim

It strikes us as the height of hypocrisy for anyone to suggest that if the United States does not stand down in its war on terrorism during Ramadan, the Islamic holy month, that it risks losing support of Muslim allies.
Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has warned that fighting during Ramadan "would certainly have some negative effects in the Muslim world." Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda stated, "Emotionally it would be explosive if military actions are still being done in Afghanistan [during Ramadan]."
Why?
There were no Ramadan truces during seven years of war between Iran and Iraq, two Muslim nations. The mujahadin did not stop fighting Russians in Afghanistan during Ramadan. Neither was the Intefadah suspended during Ramadan.
Perhaps the most glaring example of violation of the spirit of Ramadan and the spirit of respect for an enemy's religion came in 1973. The Oct. 6, 1973 attack on Israel was launched by two Muslim nations, Egypt and Syria, on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. But it was also Ramadan.
War against evil: The United States is waging a war on terrorism. Unfortunately, the terrorists have chosen to define themselves as Muslims. They have said they're fighting a holy war, even though Islamic scholars have said that their religion does not countenance suicide attacks or the cold-blooded murder of civilians.
In any religion, zealots can pick or choose a piece or two of scripture to legitimatize their cause. In the United States, the Ku Klux Klan misused the Bible to justify their hateful ends. In the Muslim world, Al-Qaida does the same with the Koran.
The position of the United States has been -- correctly -- that this is not a religious war, not a war against Islam. This is a war against terrorism, and terrorists cannot be permitted to hide behind their religion, whatever that religion might be.
To suspend air attacks or to delay fighting on the ground because of the Islamic observation of Ramadan -- which begins Nov. 16 this year -- would ratify the claims of these terrorists that they are religious men who deserve to be treated as such. They are not. They are men who have perverted the teachings of their religion and who have wrapped themselves in the robes of religious men in order to pursue their own political ends.
A Ramadan truce in this war would be a disservice to our nation and to its fighting forces, and it would be an insult to those Muslims who are true to their religion's peaceful nature -- among whom Osama bin Laden and his band of murderers are not to be found.