Source: The Chicago Tribune
On October 24, 2003 The Chicago Tribune reported that "this year the Muslim holy month of Ramadan wades even further into the ocean of popular culture with the appearance of greeting cards produced by industry giant Hallmark Cards, which joins the ever-growing Internet Ramadan products industry... 'Ramadan, in particular, has through most of the 20th Century been getting more and more attached to secular rituals like gift-giving, card-sending and festive meals to break each day's traditional dawn-to-dusk fast,' said Walter Armbrust, a professor at St. Anthony's College, University of Oxford. Armbrust is researching trends in Ramadan celebrations in Egypt. Armbrust, speaking from Cairo, said he has seen a trend in the Muslim world toward observing Ramadan in a more commercialized fashion, a development that he says runs counter in some ways to the original purpose of the observance. 'Ramadan is not supposed to be a holiday in which you consume more than you do in the rest of the year,' he said. 'In some ways, Ramadan has been adopted as a local variation of Christmas'... Muslim business owners say the commercial element of Ramadan represents not a departure from traditional Islam, but a higher degree of acknowledgment and acceptance in American culture."