American Muslims celebrate Eid al-Fitr
An air of excitement has surrounded the American Muslim community, seen at this masjid in Washington, D.C. That is because the month of Ramadhan is over which means Eid ul-Fitr is here.
Eid ul-Fitr is one of two major Islamic holidays Muslims celebrate by visiting family, friends, neighbors and others, sharing food, gifts and each other’s company.
Children are particularly happy on this festive occasion, as they get to indulge in treats and receive gifts, especially if they’ve fasted in Ramadhan.
Although Eid is usually a three day occasion, this year the celebration fell in the middle of the work week, gucci outlet meaning many American Muslims could only take one day or part of a day off, and will have to go back to work tomorrow.
Many American Muslims are the only ones in their families. Therefore the larger community acts as family for many, especially with celebrations like Eid.
Like most years, the day of Eid differs depending on each country’s opinion. Because of the diversity of Muslims in the U.S., some mosques celebrated on Tuesday and others on Wednesday.
Structurally, the new “Boko Haram” does not have a semblance of other groups around the world linked to Al Qaeda. The Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb, AQIM, was founded by Mokhtar Belmokhtar in Algeria after it pulled away from its original identity with Hassan Hattab’s Salafist Group for Call and Combat, SGPC. Its theatres of operation include Algeria, Mali, Mauritania, Chad and Senegal.
The Somali Al Shabaab militia also affiliated to Al Qaeda has as its leaders Sheikh Mukhtar Robow and Hassan Dahir Aweys. Leading a faction of foreign fighters is Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr. And of course, the original Boko Haram leader, Mohammed Yusuf, was well known even before he was captured. By general tradition, Islamic militants never conceal the identity of their leaders. Even when Osama Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan on May 2 this year, his successor and former number two, Ayman Zawahiri, was unveiled to the world. These militant groups cannot tactically afford to hide the identity of their leaders because the suicide fighters need their “inspiration”; and the disclosure of identity is a statement in courage and defiance.
But the new “Boko Haram” has no known leader or leaders, not even one with an assumed name. Their mode of operation is more like a copycat of MEND’s methods. The thinking pattern seems to be to copy closely the MEND’s method through which it was able to wrest the presidency for Jonathan, their kinsman. There are those who allege that should this group succeed in, somehow or the other, driving Jonathan out of power and a Northerner finds himself in Aso Villa the attacks might cease almost immediately, just as MEND’s has since done.
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