JEDDAH/RIYADH, 11 January 2006 — Millions of citizens and residents offered Eid Al-Adha prayers at the Grand Mosque in Makkah and the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah yesterday.
Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais, the imam of the Grand Mosque, in his sermon called on Muslims to respond to the hate campaign against Islam.
“Islam is the religion of moderates and yet a vicious campaign has been unleashed to tarnish its image. For the misdeeds of a few, the entire community is being held to ransom,” he said. “We all must realize that they are always on the lookout for the mistakes of a few Muslims so that Islam gets a bad name and people all over start hating it.”
Calling for more moderation among Muslims, he said deviation of thoughts and concepts had assumed “dangerous” levels.
“We now see fights and challenges taking place in the form of intellectual invasion globally for more freedom,” he said.
“Fight terrorism and extremism,” he told Muslims and urged them to spread the message that Islam does not preach terrorism, and moderates should not be held responsible for the crimes and killings being committed by a few in the Muslim world. He appealed to the few disgruntled elements that have strayed from the path of peace to return to their senses.
“Let’s start with ourselves. However, reforms should not be imposed on us. They should come from within us and in keeping with the tenets of Islam,” the imam said.
Referring to the Al-Aqsa Mosque issue, which remains unsolved, he called a halt to the ongoing killings and destruction of homes and property by Israelis. “They are trying to destroy the mosque,” he said.
He reminded the Ummah not to forget the people of Iraq who are in a hopeless situation struggling for peace and prosperity.
In the capital, Riyadh Governor Prince Salman offered Eid Al-Adha prayers along with citizens and residents. Prayers were also held in 20 locations and 396 mosques in different parts of the capital. Similar were the scenes in Jeddah, Dammam and elsewhere.
With many people away either on Haj or vacation, roads in cities wore a deserted look. The sole reminder of the festivities was the exchange of greetings on the road and vehicles passing by with children decked out in their Eid dresses. Others played football and cricket in street lanes as many stayed at home with their families.
However, the tempo picked up as the day wore on, with parks, zoos and amusement arcades reporting a fairly good turnout in Riyadh and other places. The holiday crowd thronged the Corniche in Jeddah and the Half Moon Bay in Dammam.
Some residents in Riyadh told Arab News that restrictions on the intermingling of men and women as well as on photography not only deprived them of fun but also prevented them from capturing those precious moments on their cameras.
“I had to cancel my visit to an amusement park because only women and children were allowed in, while men had to wait outside,” Rasheeduddin Ahmed, an IT specialist, said.
Shaikh Abdul Haq, computer engineer, said that when he entered the Al-Salamah Park on King Fahd Road after paying admission fee, the park attendant asked them to deposit the cricket bat and ball in a locker.
For Abdul Mustafa M. Haroon, a company executive who came down to Riyadh from the Eastern Province for the holidays, the Eid festival gave him a rude shock. As he was entering a shop in Hayyl Wuzarat (Hara) to recharge his mobile phone, two street urchins snatched his phone and SR200 from his hand and fled in opposite directions.
— Input by Javid Hassan, K.S. Ramkumar & Ebtihal Mubarak
