Eid’l Adha celebrated with prayers for peace
The Muslim community in Cebu City yesterday marked the Eid'l Adha or Feast of Sacrifice with prayers asking for an end to oppression and a beginning of an era of equality and peace.
Eid'l Adha is the second Muslim holiday celebrated worldwide each year. Generally, it is considered holier than the first holiday called Eid al-Fit'r which marks the end of Ramadan.
Eid'l Adha honors the willingness of Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son, as an act of submission to God's command, before God then intervened sending his angel Jibra'il (Gabriel) and informed him that his sacrifice had already been accepted.
Jamil Faisal Adiong, a Muslim youth leader, said he prayed yesterday for an end to discrimination, especially against Muslims, who according to him, have been mistakenly tagged as the perpetrators of the recent Davao City blast.
"We are calling on the public to offer their sacrifices by setting aside their prejudices and removing their biases over stereotyping the Muslim minority. We should reconcile our differences in religion, ethnicity or race," he said.
He said biased thinking should be avoided since it distorts personal peace.
Adiong, former president of the Federation of the Muslim Students Association-Cebu, shared that one of his personal prayers was for the souls of those who perished in the Davao bombing to find peace and that justice be given to them.
He also invited those from other religions to commemorate with them in the Feast of Sacrifice by also sacrificing their own prejudices and biases.
"As we offer our own sacrifices, we encourage people also to celebrate diversity and set aside whatever affiliations or associations we have," he said.
One of his prayers yesterday was also for people to stop the "blaming game" as it only cultivates a culture of hatred and fear.
"Looking at a bigger picture, what is happening right now is a blaming game. People are blaming drug personalities or communist parties or the militant groups as those behind the bombing. We pray that this mindset will be removed since if there is hatred and fear, we can't find peace," he said.
Adiong was one of the Muslim Filipinos who gathered yesterday morning at Plaza Independencia in Cebu City for a centralized prayer in observance of Eid'l Adha. Among others, they offered prayers for victims of the Davao City explosion that killed at least 14 people and injured dozens more.
Yesterday, Chief Superintendent Noli Taliño, director of the Police Regional Office-7, thanked the Muslim community for cooperating in their campaign against illegal drug trade.
Taliño noted that the celebration yesterday was peaceful.
He also said stricter security measures are still in place with the declaration of the state of lawlessness in the country by President Rodrigo Duterte following the Davao blast.