LONDON: Muslims around the world marked the Eid Al-Adha holiday on Tuesday, gathering at mosques or in vast open sites to celebrate one of the two most important festivals of the Islamic calendar.
Commemorating the willingness of Ibrahim, or Abraham, to sacrifice his son on God’s command, Muslims mark the holiday by slaughtering animals such as sheep and goats. The meat is shared among family and friends and also donated to the poor.
Palestinians visited the compound known to Muslims as Al-Haram Al-Sharif in Jerusalem’s Old City, following morning prayers marking the first day of the Eid Al-Adha celebration.
In Syria, President Bashar Assad attended prayers at a mosque in Damascus.
The festival was also celebrated across Africa and Asia. In the Kenyan capital Nairobi thousands gathered in a field for mass prayers, the faithful also met in the Somali capital Mogadishu, and prayed at Almaty’s Central Mosque in Kazakhstan.
More than 226,000 of Muslims gathered at mosques in the Russian capital to celebrate Eid Al-Adha. The largest in Europe, Moscow Cathedral Mosque has become the epicenter for celebrations.
The festival comes as the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Makkah in Saudi Arabia draws to a close.
Meanwhile, almost 2.4 million Muslims took part in the symbolic stoning of the devil on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, the last major ritual of the Hajj pilgrimage that heralds the start of the Eid Al-Adha feast.
Muslims on the annual Hajj pilgrimage, one of the five pillars of Islam, made their way across the Mina valley of the western Saudi Arabian Makkah province, many carrying pebbles in plastic bottles.
Pilgrims clad in white threw seven stones each at a pillar symbolising satan, shouting “Allahu akbar” (“God is greatest“) under the watchful eyes of security forces.
Large fans sprayed water over the crowd as temperatures climbed to 44 degrees Celsius.
“Thank God it hasn’t been too crowded this year. There hasn’t been a big rush,” said Mohammed Osman, 27, who regularly attends Hajj.
Mina was the site of a 2015 stampede which saw more than 2,300 pilgrims crushed or suffocated to death. Authorities have since reinforced safety and security measures.
“We are under God’s protection,” said May Khalifa, a 37-year-old Egyptian Muslim living in Riyadh.
“Despite the exhaustion, I’m enjoying my first Hajj,” she said, lifting her small bag of stones.
Muslims around the world celebrate Eid Al-Adha
Muslims around the world celebrate Eid Al-Adha
Blair dropped from Gaza ‘peace board’ after Arab objections
- Former UK PM was viewed with hostility over role in Iraq War
- He reportedly met Netanyahu late last month to discuss plans
LONDON: Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has been withdrawn from the US-led Gaza “peace council” following objections by Arab and Muslim countries, The Guardian reported.
US President Donald Trump has said he would chair the council. Blair was long floated for a prominent role in the administration, but has now been quietly dropped, according to the Financial Times.
Blair had been lobbying for a position in the postwar council and oversaw a plan for Gaza from his Tony Blair Institute for Global Change that involved Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.
Supporters of the former British leader cited his role in the Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of conflict and violence in Northern Ireland.
His detractors, however, highlighted his former position as representative of the Middle East Quartet, made up of the UN, EU, Russia and US, which aimed to bring about peace in the Middle East.
Furthermore, Blair’s involvement in the Iraq War is viewed with hostility across the Arab world.
After Trump revealed his 20-point plan to end the Israel-Hamas war in September, Blair was the only figure publicly named as taking a potential role in the postwar peace council.
The US president supported his appointment and labeled him a “very good man.”
A source told the Financial Times that Blair’s involvement was backed by the US and Israel.
“The Americans like him and the Israelis like him,” the person said.
The US plan for Gaza was criticized in some quarters for proposing a separate Gaza framework that did not include the West Bank, stoking fears that the occupied Palestinian territories would become separate polities indefinitely.
Trump said in October: “I’ve always liked Tony, but I want to find out that he’s an acceptable choice to everybody.”
Blair is reported to have held an unpublicized meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late last month to discuss plans.
His office declined to comment to The Guardian, but an ally said the former prime minister would not be sitting on Gaza’s “board of peace.”
