Surveying the Arab World for Ramadan's Best and Worst

And you thought it was just Thanksgiving, Christmas and Memorial Day that have become the province of crass commercialism.

Maktoob Research, the Dubai-based marketing and Internet business group, just released a Ramadan survey of more than 6,000 Muslims from across the Arab world. Biggest complaint about the holy month--or at least what's becoming of the holy month? 67% of respondents find it too commercial. They're not kidding. For every Quran recitation contest, there's a hookah tent somewhere puffing away the night after a robust spree of shopping and dining.

Other survey findings:

• 96% of Muslim Arabs are observing the Ramadan fast, including an alleged 100 percent of the all 760 Moroccans interviewed, 99% of respondents in Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt, and 85% in the United Arab Emirates (numbers I find just slightly dubious for their similarity to other near-unanimous plebiscites in the region, where saying something publicly doesn't necessarily mirror what one thinks or does privately).
• 89% view Ramadan as a yearly lesson in self-restraint and discipline
• 71% believe Ramadan fosters solidarity and brotherhood with fellow Muslims.
• 62% say non-Muslims living in Arab countries should't eat or drinking publicly during Ramadan.
• 74% said they read the entire Quran during the month of Ramadan (don't be alarmed: the Quran is about the length of a short Philip Roth novel).
• 43% said they watch television less often during the Holy Month--a figure belied by television ratings in the Arab world, which make every night a "who shot J.R." kind of night for television networks.

The survey was conducted in August, mind you, just before Ramadan, which is like surveying Christians' good will and love toward all on Christmas eve, before opening the presents: the best intentions usually prevail.

Still, according to Tamara Deprez, director of Maktoob Research, the findings "show that despite the pace of modern life and the changes in people’s lifestyle, the Arab world retains its spiritual essence and remains largely tradition-bound where matters of faith are concerned - more so during the Holy Month of Ramadan."

Don't tell that to the latest Saudi clerics with fatwas on their mind (one of them wants television execs murdered for piping in "obscene" satellite programming, another wants Mickey Mouse exterminated).

Don't tell that to Egypt's government, either. Some 20 homeless families, survivors of the rock slide that ravaged a slum and killed more than 60 people on Sept. 6, had set up camp in a Cairo park, opposite the office of the city's governor (as a reminder of their needs), only to be forcibly removed by police yesterday.

And of course don't tell that to Hamas, that other militantly devout Islamic organization, which netted itself 11 kills, including a baby boy, when it launched a raid on a rival gang in Gaza.

Just another day of Ramadan solidarity and celebration across the Arab world.