Учебно-методическое пособие по работе с темой "COUNTRY PROFILE". Дедова С.А. - 24 стр.

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The Koran is the Islamic holy book. Throughout his life, Mohammed re-            Ramadan is the ninth month of the Muslim calendar. It is a time of fasting
ceived messages from God. Unable to read or write, Mohammed learned              for Muslims and eating, drinking and smoking during the hours of daylight
them by heart before passing them on to other Muslims so they could be           is strictly forbidden. The fast is broken at the end of each day with a prayer
written down. After his death in 632A.D, all these written passages were         and a meal called the iftar.
gathered together in one book. The fundamental message of the Koran is           Muslims observe the Fast of Ramadan as they believe it allows them to
that God is the creator of the world and that he controls everything in it.      concentrate on their faith and spend less time on the concerns of their eve-
The Koran forbids the use of images of living things, hence there is no          ryday lives. It also enables them to develop their powers of self-control and
physical representation of God. Images representing the religion are based       through the hunger it causes to have sympathy for the less fortunate in the
on geometric shapes and calligraphy.                                             world. During Ramadan, some Muslims may spend several hours at the
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The Arabic word Islam means ‘submission’ reflecting the Koran’s instruc-         in prayer. On the evening of the 27th day of Ramadan, Muslims celebrate
tion that Muslims are required to surrender to the will of God.                  the Laylat-al-Qadr (the Night of Power). It is believed that on this night the
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The city of Mecca is important as the birthplace of Mohammed and be-             the Koran, it is on this day that God determines the course of the world for
cause it is where he first preached God’s message. In the centre of Mecca is     the following year. When the Fast of Ramadan ends, on the first day of the
the Ka’ba, a large square building, which is kept covered in black cloth         month of Shawwal, there is a three-day holiday called Id-al-Fitr (the Feast
richly embroidered in gold. In one wall is a black stone believed to be a        of Fast Breaking). Friends and family eat, exchange gifts and pray together.
meteorite placed there by Ibrahim when he first built the Ka’ba. All Mus-
lims try to visit the holy Ka’ba in Mecca, and walk round it seven times, at     3) Write six questions about the text for a classmate to answer.
least once in their lifetime.                                                    For example, How many times a day do Muslims pray?
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Muslims pray five times a day from first thing in the morning to last thing      To find out more about Ramadan and Islam, visit the following sites:
at night. Wherever they are in the world, they face towards the Ka’ba in         www.islaam.com
Mecca as they pray. The original movements of prayer, which were taught          www.submission.org/ramadan.html
by Mohammed, are still practised today: stand, bow, kneel and then kneel         www.holidays.net/ramadan/
with one’s face towards the floor. On Fridays, the most holy day, Muslim         www.al-muslim.org
men meet in the mosque to pray together.
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The Koran gives guidance to all aspects of life, including eating and drink-        by Muslim fundamentalists. Recall the World Trade Center bombing
ing. It forbids the drinking of alcohol as it encourages aggressive behaviour       by militant Muslim fanatics, acts of terrorism in Israel, etc. What are
and distracts people from the principles of the religion. All meats must be         the root causes of religious intolerance and fanaticism? For addi-
halal, which means the animals are slaughtered in a way that gives the least        tional information read the following text.
pain, and ‘In the name of God’ is recited as each animal is killed. It is for-
bidden to eat anything from a pig, which is considered an unclean animal.                         BEWARE OF RELIGIOUS FANATICS
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Traditional Muslim clothing covers as much of the body as possible, par-                The leading Islamic historian, Bernard Lewis, has pointed out that
ticularly for women. This is done to varying degrees, but in some Muslim         the Muslim has suffered successive stages of defeat: first, his loss of domi-
societies, women cover their entire bodies, including their faces, when they     nation of others. A Muslim world dominant for a thousand years was sur-
are in public.                                                                   passed by the West, whose systems proved more powerful; in organization,

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