Re: Why do muslims get offended?
Whatever one feels about fasting is between them and God. The public sphere in Muslim socities, however, is a shared space and so only one set of values can dominate. The idea that it would be pious to have public disrespect of Ramadan, and those fasting, is nonsense imho.
During the time of the Prophet (pbuh), there is no recorded tradition I know of where one was eating in front of Muslims while they were fasting. It can go either way, but the traditional paradigm of "enjoining what is right/prescribed" may apply. In any case, here we have a situation where the government could cater to non-fasters, or fasters. WHY should a Muslim government cater to non-fasters?
You see, that time no one complained about being offended by someone who is eating during Ramadan because I believe they had much stronger faith than what people me have these days.
The job of a govenment is to protect the interest of the majority (if not all) in the country no matter if the harm could be caused by very small number of people (eg: in Chicago, it's illegal to own a fire arm) so I don't know why it shocking to anyone if those muslim countries don't allow to eat in the public. It's most likely to happen in an Islamic country where a nut flips on someone who is eating during Ramadan than somewhere where Muslims are in minority.
I would once again suggest that this thread should be moved outside of the religion section to something like General.