Muslim gathering
Credit: Yasin Osman

Today, America grieves for those lost on September 11. Tomorrow, on September 12, Muslims worldwide celebrate the holiest day of the Islamic calendar: Eid-ul-Adha, the Festival of Sacrifice. It’s a day of prayer, feasting, charity, and remembrance. Muslims honor Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son when called by God by sacrificing an animal and distributing the meat between friends, family, and the needy.

Because the Islamic calendar is lunar and Eid-ul-Adha shifts by about ten days each year, these two sacred days—one of religious celebration, the other of national mourning—almost coincided this year. The prospect troubled many, and American Muslims breathed easier when, after the new moon was sighted on September 1, the Fiqh Council of North America (the local body offering non-binding religious rulings) announced that Eid would be observed on September 12, a day later than initially projected.

“My 13-year old daughter told me, ‘Thank God Eid didn’t fall on 9/11. Otherwise, people would think that we’re celebrating that day,’” says Rafi-uddin Shikoh, the […]