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| Olde Tyme Religion |
| Hanging on a Muslim holiday is criticized |
| 2006-12-30 |
| The Muslim religious holiday Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice, is meant to commemorate Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son on God's orders. But now the holiday could also be associated with something else: the execution of ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Now it can be seen as Iraq's willingness to sacrifice its son for the public order. Sounds appropriate to me. The Iraqi government's push to hang Hussein this morning, when much of the Muslim world was celebrating Eid, drew criticism from Islamic leaders in the Middle East and America. "Executing any individual during this holiday period indicates poor judgment and a lack of sensitivity," the Muslim Public Affairs Council said in a statement. Even if it were true, weren't "poor judgment and a lack of sensitivity" the hallmarks of Saddam's regime? As the Hussein drama played out Friday in Baghdad, millions of Muslims gathered in Saudi Arabia for the Hajj pilgrimage, a pillar of the Islamic faith that every Muslim is required to perform at least once if able. "Connecting this to a religious occasion will just widen the gap between the factions in Iraq," said Muhammad Eissa, a University of Chicago professor of Arabic and an Islamic scholar. "This is a time when Muslims in particular are supposed to be forgiving, are supposed to be closer to God. Why are they using this occasion to take revenge? They couldn't wait one more week? This is the perfect test of Muslim forgiveness. Sunnis can forgive Shi'ites for having had to execute one of their leaders for the common good, and Shi'ites can forgive Sunnis for foisting such a monster upon them, knowing that he can never rise again. This can be an opportunity for Muslims in Iraq as well as a challenge. Are they up to it? On Friday, pilgrims performed a daylong vigil of outdoor prayer on Mt. Arafat (aka Suha) outside Mecca. Traditionally Eid is meant to begin the following day, but disagreements ... (what a surprise) ... over the Islamic calendar have created a dual holiday. Saudi religious scholars declared Eid to be today, with much of the Sunni Muslim world following suit. However, most Shiite Muslims and some Sunni groups consider Sunday the true start of the four-day holiday. Some view the execution's timing as a deliberate slap by Iraq's Shiite-led government at the country's Sunnis, who benefited from the reign of Hussein, a Sunni, and who make up much of Iraq's insurgency. "The Sunnis are going to see this as an insult," said Shakeel Syed, executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California. "The reaction is going to be very, very negative." And they've been so positive so far otherwise. Sabih Maryati, a Shiite and a board member of Ahlul-Beyt Mosque in Pomona, also criticized the timing. "This is supposed to be a time of reconciliation. But this timing is definitely going to make the situation much worse. All it's going to do is increase the violence and make the country more unstable. AoS at 10:19 CDT: formatting fixed. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #3 Traditionally Eid is meant to begin the following day, but disagreements over the Islamic calendar have created a dual holiday These losers literally cannot agree on what day it is. I hereby issue a fatwah declaring Saddam's bloated fly-blown corpse the 65,535th Most Holy Place in Islam. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2006-12-30 16:24 |
| #2 You guys might want to check your Surprise-Meter on this one. I think mine is broken because it didn't register anything; not even cosmic background surprise radiation. |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2006-12-30 10:14 |
| #1 I forgot to highlight my comments after the third paragraph. Sorry! |
| Posted by: ryuge 2006-12-30 04:58 |