Christians need a Ramadan

My last year at Duke Divinity I sat in on a panel discussion between Sam Wells, dean of Duke Chapel, and Abdullah Antepli,
Muslim chaplain to Duke University. (Imam Antepli also spoke at Wild
Goose this summer.) In the course of their discussion about Islam and
Christianity, Imam Antepli said something that disturbed me a great
deal about my faith. It went something like this:

When I ask a Muslim what makes them a Muslim I get an
immediate response which includes things like, I pray 5 times a day, I
take care of the sick and the poor, I do not eat this or that, I fast on
a regular basis and I observe Ramadan.   These practices make me
Muslim, they would say.

Imam Antepli then said the thing that damned me and I think most Christians,