New York – For Muslims in America, especially New Yorkers, the announcement that Eid ul Adha will fall on September 12 was a welcome relief.
Many imams and Muslim community leaders were concerned that the Eid would fall on the 15th anniversary of the downing of four buildings of the World Trade Center complex on September 11, 2001. Nearly 3,000 people were killed and 6,000 injured in what is noted as the worst terrorist attack in modern history.
“At least it doesn’t give an excuse for the Islam haters to falsely claim that Muslims were celebrating on 9/11,” said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on Islamic Relations told Reuters. “That was the concern.”
CAIR, like many Islamic advocacy groups in the United States, has been seeing an uptick in hate crimes against Muslims. There have been numerous reports of hijab-clad Muslimahs being harassed or assaulted, Muslim shopkeepers assaulted, mosques being defaced and slayings.
In New York City, Imam Maulama Akonjee, 55 and his assistant Thara Uddin, 64, were both shot execution-style in the back of the head in broad daylight after leaving the mosque in Cypress Hills, a neighborhood in Queens last month. Both were Muslims from Bangladesh and had just finished the afternoon prayer.
The lunar calendar month begins with the sighting of the new moon. The Eid al Adha is celebrated on the tenth day of the month of Dhul Hijjah.
Muslims worldwide will slaughter sheep, goats, camels or what they can afford to remember the Prophet Abraham’s act of faith in attempting to slaughter his son, Ishmael in accordance to God’s commandment.
Nearly 700,000 have traveled to Mecca to observe the rites of Haj, the fifth pillar of Islam, in which all Muslims make the pilgrimage to Mecca in their lifetimes or, at least, make the intention.
