Eid ul Azha … Russia VS Bangladesh

Eid Mubarak everyone!

This year Eid al-Adha or "Festival of Sacrifice" was celebrated in Russia 1 day before Bangladesh, on 16^th November (which is, I suppose, because of time and probably moon calendar difference. I might be mistaken)

This Eid reminds us the story of Abraham (Ibrahim) who was supposed to sacrifice his son Ismail to Allah according to God's command, sent to Abraham in a dream. Abraham shared the dream and its intent with his son and Ismail showed his love and commitment for Allah, as well as his own father and obeyed to sacrifice his own life for the sake of Allah… That was the test by Allah. When the God saw both Abraham and Ismail ready for a cruel demonstration of their faith (Ismail was already lying under his father’s knife), Allah told Abraham to replace his son with a ram. 

The tradition of Eif is followed by all Muslims in the world more or less in the same way. Prayer, then gathering together with the whole family, killing an Eid ram, cooking. Meat is divided in three parts, one remains with the family, second goes to the  relatives, friends and neighbors, and the last third is given to the poor.

In Russia (as in Turkey and some other Central and East Asian countries) it is called Kurban Bairam. There are around 15 million Muslims in Russia according to official statistics (Rosstat), other sources mention 20-25 millions. The Muslim population increased 40% in last 15 years.

Below you can see a video by 1^st TV channel (“Pervij kanal”) from celebration in Moscow (language is Russian, so just see the video)

 

Photos from Moscow taken by Leonid Varlamov. The full report is here (LiveJournal of Leonid Varlamov) It’s worth seeing!!!

Photos from Dhaka taken by photographer Shuvo Das (from this source http://www.demotix.com/news/510439/eid-ul-adha-celebration-dhaka)

Moscow, 16th Nov 2010

Dhaka, 17th Nov 2010

Dhaka, Family shares the prayer

In Moscow prayer is shared with police

And here one can find photos from St-Petersburg.

The photos belong to Valentin Ilushin, photo reporter of Fontanka.ru (online newspaper)

http://www.fontanka.ru/2010/11/16/038/picture.1.html

Also some photos from DP.ru http://www.dp.ru/a/2010/11/16/Baranov_dlja_Kurbanbajram

(Unfortunately I can’t find the author of the photos)

The main mosque (very beautiful one, by the way) is situated in the centre of St-Petersburg. Muslim’s gathering caused jams and definitely gave rise to condemning comments from townspeople…

1-day Barbarian

As you can understand, for those people who are not aware about Eid and its traditions, killing of animals becomes a cruel act of “those Muslim barbarians”. However, an honest person will admit that the same had been happening in each and every Russian village for ages and still happening, of course. And at last, meat factories all over the world do not look better at all.

Anyway, here we are in Moscow, witnessing Russian style of sacrifice…

Photoes by Leonid Varlamov 

It is also worth seeing for those especially who wonders why I eat only vegetable. 

Nothing personal :)

 

And this is how the victims of holy sacrifice were sold just in the open place in the center of Russian capital: http://www.echo.msk.ru/blog/ottenki_serogo/726873-echo/

Photos were taken by Sergey Muhhamedov, the  source is “Eho Moskvi” FM station webpage.

And here we see the trace of Eid celebration in Kazan, traditionally Muslim place in Russia. Animals’ remains on the backyard of the mosque scare both non-muslim and muslim people, especially kids on their way to school.

 

As one of the locals tells the author of the article (“Komsomolskya pravda” newspaper), the remains used to appear here every year after Eid and stay until local people would not through them out or bury them

 

Not only animals’ killing is discussed regarding Eid in Russia. One of the most commented videos in the net was taken at Gorkovskaya Metro station in St-Petersburg (just opposite the mosque). 

 After praying hundreds of people had taken the metro entrance by storm, jumping over the turnstiles…..

I would say, even if these Muslims are “newcomers” in our city, the intellectual capital of Russia, even if they are less educated or not educated at all (as many of “Slovenian” Russians coming from other parts of Russia by the way!), NORMALLY they would not do like this. They would by a ticket and go as all other people do...Who doubts?

At the end of the day,  why shall not we recall those huge events taking place in the city fro tie to time, like New Year or 9 May (Victory Day in Russia) or Paratrooper’s day or ZENITH (St-Petersburg’s football team) games, for example.

I bet, same video with very white Slovenian faces, doing same bloody things one could have taken on these days, couldn’t he?

The use of tolerance

This Eid celebration got me back to one of the most complicated topics in my journalistic practice. It’s tolerance and how it works, or I must say, doesn’t work in Russia. (Does it work anywhere in general?)

This time our society divided into several groups. The majority is definitely condemns the open celebration of Eid. The minority suggests authorities to arrange celebrations such a way that nobody would feel insulted, neither muslim society, nor non-muslim citizens.

What do I mean by “open” celebration? Open means thousands muslims’ crowd in the center of largest cities, open means selling animals and killings just in the middle of the street (last year the killing was seen in Apraskin Dvor, the biggest center city market in St-Petersburg, this time they did it somewhere out of the city). All this frightens people and pours oil on the flames of the popular in Russia and most of all other “white” countries idea that a Muslim is a terrorist. Unfortunately, I would repeat, unfortunately, it happens.

Though, I would say, while reading forums and blogs, I picked up a lot of reasonable comments from those who follows the idea of humanity and respect for a human being (which comes before respect to any religion). However, these people are in minority and would stay a minority. In my opinion.

Here in Russia we’d been speaking about tolerance for last 10-15 years, right after the ruin of Soviet  Union. Naturally, Russia in times of Soviet Union or earlier, in times of Russian Empire, was always a multinational country (due to its size of course). Then, after the collapse, when all the former soviet republics, donated from the center, became independed and poor, the huge wave of migration started… It sees like since then Russians forgot about recent fraternity. 

So what do we have today? Injuring and killings of both classes – migrants or just “persons of Caucasian origin” (this is how all people with dark skin and slanting eyes are called in Russia)  and, on the other hand, those Russians who fights for human rights and against fascism. 

We still have those celebrated cases in our memories…9-years old girl from Tajikistan family, cruelly killed by a group of 11 youngsters  in St-Petersburg (later they were sentenced under “hooliganism” article…). On 13th November 5 years ago a 20-years old student of Faculty of Philosophy, State University, an anti-fascist  activist and “Food not Bombs” movement member Timur Kacharava was killed in the central street of the city – Nevsky prospect. He was Georgian by origin. Then lawyer Stanislav Markelov and a journalist Anastasia Baburova, killed in  Moscow in connection of the “antifascist” views and activities…

But this is a new story which I will definitely tell you in future.

And for know, I wish happy Eid vacation for those who celebrate it.

Especially for those who is doing it in St-Martins’ :P