Eid-ul-Fitr is a joyous, three-day holiday, but Saturday will be subdued "as a way of showing our pain."
View full sizeThe Islamic Society of Central New York holds a Friday prayer service at the OnCenter. It takes place at the end of the month-long fasting for Ramadan and the start of a three day holiday Eid-ul-Fitr. Hakeem Marshall and his son Hudhaifa (age 4) of Syracuse take their places for the service in a crowd estimated by those in attendance at 1500 people. Hakeem said the traditional clothes he wears are from Morocco and his son is wearing a garment from Saudi Arabia. Syracuse, NY-- The imam for the Islamic Society of Central New York today said he has asked the mosque’s 5,000 members to refrain from celebrating Eid-ul-Fitr on Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Eid-ul-Fitr, a joyous three-day holiday celebrating the end of the month-long fast of Ramadan, began Friday. The holiday’s timing is based on the lunar calendar.
Although it’s a three-day holiday, Imam Yaser Alkhooly said he has asked mosque members to refrain from celebrations Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, “as a way of showing our pain.”
Muslims also suffered losses during the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, he said after Friday prayers at the Oncenter in Syracuse.
USA Today has reported that about 60 of the nearly 3,000 victims of the attacks were Muslim.
In his khutbah, or speech, after Friday prayers, Alkhooly said part of his message was to encourage members to represent their faith to a non-Muslim society.
In acknowledging the recent furor by the Florida pastor who had pledged to burn the Muslim holy book the Quran, Alkhooly told members to be patient, fearful of God and not act out in violence.
Pastor Terry Jones of Gainesville, Fla., on television this morning, appeared to flip-flop his plans to burn Qurans in a protest on Saturday.
Jones had agreed not to burn the holy books if a controversial Islamic center proposed for two blocks from Ground Zero were moved elsewhere.
He has been invited to New York that day to meet with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam of the proposed center. The burning will not take place on Saturday if he attends the meeting, Jones said.
Members of the Islamic Society of Central New York who spoke with a reporter this morning said they want to put Jones’ threats to burn the Quran behind them.
“It’s a pain in the heart to see this,” Imam Alkhooly said. “We should not give it any of our attention.”
Standing outside the exhibit hall before prayers, Mirsad Sahbaz, president of the Islamic Society, dismissed the pastor with a shake of his head.
“You will always have people like him. We believe he is completely wrong. It doesn’t matter what book he is burning,” he said.
“I really feel the response from people who are not Muslim has been encouraging to me as a Muslim. We’re not the only ones who think that this is something he should not do,” said Nuria Abdul Sabur, 30, who was in Syracuse to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr with her family. She is getting a doctorate in neuroscience at the University of Maryland and is a researcher at the National Institutes of Health.
Friday morning, about 2,000 members of the Central New York Islamic Society filed into the Oncenter’s echoing exhibit halls for Friday services.
A hum of a single amplified voice chanting floated through the hall as the people gathered inside.
Men and boys removed their shoes and filed into one side of the meeting hall. The women and girls many dressed in outfits of yellow, orange, or magenta, some sparkling with spangles, with scarves covering their hair, removed their shoes before filing into the other side. Black curtains divided them from the men.
The people were joyous. There were hugs, formal kisses on cheeks and the traditional greeting of “ Eid Mubarak.” It means “Happy Eid,” said Michele Abdul Sabur, of Syracuse, the mother of Nuria Abdul Sabur.
The reply is “Mubarak Eid,” which wishes the other person the happiness and blessing of Eid, she said.
Muslims are required to fast, pray and make supplication to God during Ramadan, and Eid-ul-Fitr celebrates the end of the fast, Sahbaz said.
Families, who may be far flung, travel home to celebrate with family, and it’s traditional for people to buy new clothes, Abdul Sabur said.
The society gave bags of goodies to the children after the services.
Members of the society donated $8 each, and the money will be discreetly given to those in need so that they can celebrate too, Abdul Sabur said.
The society is hosting a small carnival at the mosque on Comstock Avenue from noon to 5 p.m. today to celebrate the holiday.
