Local Muslim community celebrates traditional festival

While some IU students spent their Sunday morning sleeping in, hundreds of Bloomington Muslims congregated at the Islamic Center of Bloomington to celebrate Eid al-Adha, the 'Festival of Sacrifice.'\nThe early-morning Eid prayers were followed by a sermon and a breakfast. \n"We are here to take care of the world," guest speaker Fisal Hammouda said in his sermon. Hammouda urged listeners to help those in need, whether they were of the same faith or not. \nIU students from various countries and Bloomington residents came to offer their prayers and greeted each other following the sermon. The traditional Eid greeting is "Eid Mubarak," which means "Holiday blessings." \nBloomington resident and president of the Muslim Student Association, Imad Rahman, said the Bloomington community was a "personification of Islam."\n"A lot of people associate Islam with one particular country," Rahman said. "This community is a reflection of how diverse Islam really is." \nRahman, who has been living in Bloomington for more than a year, said he was surprised by the number of people that showed up.\n"[Eid prayer] is not obligatory … and on a cold morning, with the roads still bad, we had a big turnout."\nEid al-Adha is one of the two major celebrations in the Islamic calendar -- Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, being the other -- and commemorates the Prophet Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son. God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son as a test of his faith. According to the Quran, the Muslim holy book, as Abraham raised his knife a lamb took the place of his son and was slaughtered instead. \nEid al-Adha is incorporated into the annual pilgrimage to Mecca -- known as the Hajj -- and involves the sacrifice of an animal. Families eat about one third of the animal and give the rest to the poor.\nKhidhir Zakaria, a doctoral candidate studying educational psychology at IU, has been living in Bloomington for four years. Originally from Malaysia, Zakaria remembers his first Eid being hard.\n"The first Eid was very difficult for me because I missed my family," he said. "[But] as time passes you feel you belong in the community."\nZakaria, who is married and has four children, said his family usually receives guests at their home after prayers.\n"I bring my family here every year to celebrate," he said.\nAli Rizvi, a senior at IU, has been living in the U.S. for the past four years and wasn't able to visit his family, who live in the Middle East, for Eid. \n"I think I've only spent one Eid with my family," he said. "[But] everyone here's been really nice."\n-- Contact nation & world editor Obaid Khawaja at okhawaja@indiana.edu.