#71 Religious freedom and tolerance

Today is a holiday, well aside from being grateful of having no work today, =) we celebrate a Muslim holiday Eid'l Adha, also known as the Greater Eid or Festival of the Sacrifice, commemorates and pays tribute to the patriarch Abraham (Ibrahim among Muslims) and his willingness, as the Bible narrates, to sacrifice his son Ishmael, as an act of obedience to God. According to the Qu’ran, just before Abraham was to sacrifice his son, Allah replaced Ishmael with a ram, thus sparing his life.

Worldwide, Eid’l Adha is known by other names – Hari Raya Haji in Singapore and Malaysia, Tabaski in West Africa, Hari Raya Aidiladha in Southeast Asia, Id al-adha among Indians, and Eid-ul Azha in Bangladesh. But wherever they are, Muslims celebrate the feast with joy and enthusiasm. They dress in their finest garments and slaughter animals such as goat, sheep, cow, and camel, to share with family, relatives, friends, and with the poor, to symbolize the sacrifice made by Abraham in obedience to Allah and as an act of generosity, one of the five pillars of Islam. Children get toys and food from older people. Their collective prayer is performed in congregation in open areas like fields, squares, or in mosques.

Philippines, which is a predominantly Catholic country, with almost the holidays in the year based on the Christian calendar, in honoring this day and other Muslim holidays is a good step towards unity and respect of religious differences. We may not feel it right now, but hopefully in the near future. We see the violent acts happening in Mindanao right now, but even how complicated the situation maybe, the solution will always be love and forgiveness. It will never be armed conflict, or all out war or justice. Such as the preaching made by Jesus, or Mohammed, or Buddha, or any great teacher that have graced the planet.

It can also broaden the Filipino minds, that there are other people in the world, and that they have different religions, and different customs and beliefs than they have. And that they also live their normal lives, and not different from what they feel, or think or aspire to in life, and no better person or greater than the other.