Muslims mark Eid al-Adha - Sydney Morning Herald

AFP

Muslims around the world on Tuesday marked Eid al-Adha with prayers and ritual sacrifices, but celebrations in some countries were overshadowed by war, natural disaster and soaring livestock prices.

Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice, honours Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael on the order of God, who according to Islamic tradition, provided a lamb in the boy's place.

In Saudi cities, the ritual sacrifices of sheep and goats began just after the dawn prayer. Chopping and pounding could be heard from behind the walls of great villas in downtown Riyadh, and blood was washing out into the streets.

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For the almost 2.8 million people on the Islamic hajj in Mecca it was a day for the ritual stoning of the devil, or Ibleess.

"We are expelling the devil from our minds," said Jordanian Marwan Mashah, after throwing seven pebbles at one of the stone structures symbolising Satan.

For the hajj pilgrims, though, the animal sacrifices for Eid al-Adha are mostly a hands-off affair.

The pilgrims buy coupons - available online and at ATMs - under a program managed by the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank, to have a goat or sheep or camel slaughtered on their behalf, after which the meat is frozen and sent off to the needy in 24 countries.

Eid was marked with morning prayers at mosques across war-torn Afghanistan, where NATO forces are fighting an increasingly deadly Taliban insurgency.

The streets of the capital Kabul have been filled for days with livestock for the ritual sacrifice to mark the holiday, which also saw crowds of children take to the streets to play and fly kites.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai used his annual Eid address to the nation to again urge the Taliban to join peace talks, despite the insurgents' leadership ruling out negotiations.

The hardline group's reclusive one-eyed leader Mullah Omar said on Monday in his own statement to mark Eid that reports of their involvement in peace talks were "misleading rumours."

Most of Pakistan's Muslims faced skipping the livestock sacrifice as cattle prices have more than doubled in the wake of the country's fatal floods.

"So many animals were killed by the floods - this is basically the reason for the high rates," Hijab Khan, a cattle trader at a market in the outskirts of the northwestern city of Peshawar, told AFP.

In the troubled Muslim-majority region of Indian Kashmir, many families celebrated the holiday in a low-key manner after months of curfews and violent clashes between separatist protesters and the security forces that have left 11 dead since June.

"There will be no celebrations in this house," said Misra Bano, whose son Fayaz Ahmed Wani, 29, died during shooting by security forces in the region's summer capital of Srinagar in July.

Muslim separatists in Kashmir have called for austerity during Eid.

Austerity also marked Eid in the impoverished Gaza Strip, where the Israeli blockade has hiked Palestinian unemployment and left many families with little spare cash for the four-day holiday.

In Indonesia, the most populous Muslim nation, about 2,000 refugees who have fled their homes because of the threats of Merapi volcano's heat clouds marked Eid with prayers at the Maguwoharjo stadium in Sleman district on Tuesday, 25 kilometres away from the crater.

In Magelang district, refugees held their prayers while wearing masks to protect themselves from volcanic ash, according to Detik news website.

At least 259 people were killed since Merapi started erupting late last month, and more than 390,000 people have been forced to live in makeshift camps.

Not all Muslims, however, began celebrating Eid al-Adha on Tuesday.

Celebrations in Iraq, where leaders last week signed a power-sharing deal more than eight months after parliamentary elections, were marked by the differing interpretations of its Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim communities.

Sunni worshippers began marking the occasion on Tuesday, with Shi'ite festivities not due to begin until Wednesday, resulting in a five-day holiday for the country, compared to the four-day norm in the region.

Baghdad's normally bumper-to-bumper traffic was nowhere to be seen on Tuesday morning, with normally one-hour journeys condensed to 15 minutes as the capital's residents rested or went on holiday.

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After Comments About Muslims, NPR Terminates Juan Williams' Contract - NPR

Update at 12:40 p.m. ET:

Since we first put this post up at 8:38 a.m. ET, the story of the termination of news analyst Juan Williams' contract with NPR over remarks he made on Fox News Channel about Muslims has only gotten hotter.

Williams was on Fox this morning and defended what he said earlier this week on The O'Reilly Factor — that he gets "nervous" if he's at an airport and sees "people who are in Muslim garb."

"It's not a bigoted statement," Williams said today on Fox. "I said what I meant to say, that it's an honest experience. ... I have a moment of anxiety, of fear, given what happened on 9/11."

The Fox video from earlier today is here.

Meanwhile, reaction continues to pour in:

— It's "total censorship," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-GA, said on Fox News this morning. He called on Congress to investigate.

— Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who now hosts a show on Fox, issued a statement saying "I will no longer accept interview requests from NPR as long as they are going to practice a form of censorship, and since NPR is funded with public funds, it IS a form of censorship. It is time for the taxpayers to start making cuts to federal spending, and I encourage the new Congress to start with NPR."

For the record, here's a link to charts that break down where NPR and its member stations get their money.

— Former Alaska governor, 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee and Fox News contributor Sarah Palin tweeted that "NPR defends 1st Amendment Right, but will fire u if u exercise it. Juan Williams: u got taste of Left's hypocrisy,they screwed up firing you."

— As for the liberal side, Earl Ofari Hutchinson writes at The Huffington Post that if NPR "had the ounce of integrity and fairness that it incessantly brags about (it) should have dumped Williams a long time ago for his equally great offense. And that's his two decade con job as a liberal, civil rights expert and even supporter."

Fox News' Bill O'Reilly (it was on his show where Williams made the comment about Muslims), just said on the air that Juan will be back on The O'Reilly Factor tonight.

Another update, at 2:20 p.m. ET: NPR CEO Vivian Schiller says Williams should have kept his views about Muslims to himself, "his psychiatrist or his publicist."

Our original post — "After Comments About Muslims, NPR Terminates Juan Williams' Contract":

"NPR News has terminated the contract of longtime news analyst Juan Williams after remarks he made on the Fox News Channel about Muslims," the network's David Folkenflik writes this morning. It's some of the hotter news on the Web right now.

Here's the statement NPR from CEO Vivian Schiller and Senior Vice President for News Ellen Weiss released just after midnight:

"Tonight we gave Juan Williams notice that we are terminating his contract as a Senior News Analyst for NPR News.

"Juan has been a valuable contributor to NPR and public radio for many years and we did not make this decision lightly or without regret. However, his remarks on The O’Reilly Factor this past Monday were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a News Analyst with NPR.

"We regret these circumstances and thank Juan Williams for his many years of service to NPR and public radio."

As for what Juan said on O'Reilly, as David writes:

"O'Reilly has been looking for support for his own remarks on a recent episode of ABC's The View in which he directly blamed Muslims for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Co-hosts Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg walked off the set in the middle of his appearance.

"Williams responded: 'Look, Bill, I'm not a bigot. You know the kind of books I've written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.'

"Williams also warned O'Reilly against blaming all Muslims for 'extremists,' saying Christians shouldn't be blamed for Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh."

Conservative bloggers and commentators, such as Michelle Malkin, are weighing in. She says NPR "caved into left-wing attack dogs." From the left, Salon's Glenn Greenwald sees what Juan said as "anti-Muslim bigotry."

NPR Ombudsman Alicia Shepard has previously blogged about "Juan Williams, NPR and Fox News" and that he has been a "lightning rod" for things he's said while providing commentary on Fox. We won't be surprised if Alicia writes about Juan's termination in coming days. You can send comments to her here.

Juan told David late last night that he isn't ready yet to talk about what's happened.

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