Eid al-Adha is Today

Eid al-Adha is a very important Muslim holiday that starts today! Known as the Feast of the Sacrifice, it commemorates that Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son Ishmael to God as an act of submission to God. Other than reminding us how similar Islam and Christianity are to each other, the festival goes further than Christianity in that its celebration is to sacrifice a ram/lamb/sheep/cow/goat/camel in honor of the sacrifice.

I was honored enough to go along with my Muslim students my first year here in South Africa. I went to the 5AM mosque service where the men were all on one side being preached to by the imam and the women were all on the other side bowing to... a red-and-white checkered tablecloth. Unfortunate.

tablecloth! with the men beyond

The afternoon was a whole different experience, however. It basically started with a young male student of mine from Mauritania who I had just met kneeling at the neck of a sheep (that had just been in the trunk of my car) on the dusty ground outside a butchers shop saying prayers. And then holding a huge knife to its throat.

Mohammed with a knife at the sheep's throat

That was pretty crazy. I learned that afternoon what halaal means, in that, much like kosher, special prayers are said over the meat. Cutting the neck of the sheep immediately is also more humane and better for the meat, as the blood rushes out, not staying in the meat. Also cutting the throat is better than bludgeoning them over the head (the usual method in meat-factories) because the body doesn't have time to rush full of adrenaline, which can make the meat tougher.

Today the school has a holiday, so the Muslim students can go and celebrate! "Eid Mubarak" means basically "happy Eid" or "happy holiday," so to Muslims out there, I say: Eid Mubarak!

Random Kate Thoughts: A lot of the stereotypes that America is full of regarding Muslims comes from ignorance. I hadn't had a lot of experience with Muslim traditions until coming here and I am SO glad that I did. Islamophobic rhetoric is hurtful when you know the wonderful, lovely people of the Muslim faith here and around the world. All religions have people who use it to do bad, and people who use it to do good. As educated people of the world, we always have to remember that.