A Not-So-Secular Nation

This year as Muslims prepare to celebrate Eid ul-Adha, The Day of Sacrifice (a commemoration of when God told Abraham to sacrifice his son and then they figured out there was a mistranslation and what he said was to kill your kid, meaning one of his goats), I am reminded that I am not Muslim. It is often difficult for Muslims to understand that someone could not have faith in Allah. Even Muslims who are not always strictly observant, and might even lean towards tolerance of other faiths, can't seem to understand why someone else might not enjoy celebrating Eid ul-Adha on a purely secular level. After all, there is the gathering of the family for what in many homes is the best meal of the year. Why wouldn't someone be all into that regardless of religion?

But then they break out the prayers and act all like there is nothing wrong with it. They pump them over loud speakers in the streets for all to hear and wonder why non-Muslims get so annoyed. They even accuse them of not getting into the spirit of Eid ul-Adha and like to use that as a reason to dismiss any complaints.

To the Muslim world:

I am not Muslim!

I do not celebrate Eid ul-Adha!

While it's a cool story, I've heard it a thousand times and have had enough of it!

I don't blatantly force any aspects of my religious holidays upon you, so I would appreciate some respect by affording me the same courtesy!

No matter how many times you tell me that Eid ul-Adha is pretty much a secular holiday these days, the fact remains that its name derives from a religious story and is still very much associated with that religion!

And a work place run by Muslims that forces their non-Muslim employees to listen to the prayers blasted over the intercom all day is run by pricks!

Those fucking oblivious Jehovah cults can drive a guy batty.

In 2003-FEB, a rumor spread that there would be a terrorist attack on the U.S. on Eid Ul-Adha. Some news services garbled the story and described the Day of Sacrifice as a time when passions and the potential for violence were at their height throughout the Muslim community. In fact, it is a time when Muslims concentrate on spiritual matters and their forgiveness of those who have wronged them. To claim that many Muslims will resort to violence on this day would be analogous to claiming that many Christians will become violent at Christmas time.

Like those people who will stampede at the mall to get the last of that year's must-have Christmas gift? Or are they referring to the family gatherings that often result in fights that have been documented to on occasion lead to physical attacks, shootings and suicides? Maybe it has something to do with the blasting of religious propaganda everywhere.