Ramadan fast imposes difficult choice on diabetic Muslims [View all]
AMMAN, Jordan — For years, diabetic Shawkat al-Khalili ignored his doctor's orders not to fast during the holy month of Ramadan when most of the world's 1.6 billion Muslims abstain from food and water from sunrise to sunset.
Islam exempts the sick from fasting, but the 70-year-old al-Khalili said he couldn't bring himself to violate one of the five pillars of his religion, even after he lost a toe to diabetes.
Like the retired teacher in Amman, tens of millions of diabetic Muslims struggle each year with such stressful choices. Increasingly, physicians team up with preachers or look for new methods to educate and protect the faithful.
The stakes are rising, particularly in the Arab world, where diabetes is spreading rapidly because of growing obesity caused by a more sedentary lifestyle and easy availability of processed food.
Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/news/nation-world/world/article24580696.html#storylink=cpy
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