As more than 2 million Muslims from around the world, including thousands from the UK – mark the end of their holy pilgrimage of Hajj in Mecca, I would like to extend my warmest wishes to everyone celebrating Eid al-Adha.
Eid al Adha’s themes of reflection, sacrifice and charity seem more and more relevant each year given the global challenges we face. For those suffering oppression across the world, we must continue to work towards peace, safety and security.
These values of tolerance, compassion and generosity towards one and other are at the heart of Islam and the heart of Eid – and I will stand by you in spreading those values in my party, in Westminster and in my constituency.
On behalf of the Liberal Democrats, I would like to extend my good wishes to Muslims at this special time of year.
* Tim Farron is Liberal Democrat Spokesperson on Agriculture and MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale.
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8 Comments
Happy Eid al-Adha. I saw people across Europe celebrating it this morning on Periscope and it made me happy to see the well wishes and celebrations.
Diversity isn’t bad and actually the “threat to Christmas” comes from ultra secularists as much as people worrying about inclusivity too much.
There are a lot of good things than can be said about Eid. As practised today, it generally involves family get-togethers and the giving of money and food to the poor.
But there’s no escaping the fact that the fundamental purpose of the festival is to celebrate Abraham’s willingness to kill his son in order to please God. What a shame religion doesn’t give people better ideas to unite around.
Eddie, the only government to ban Christmas was led by an “ultra Christian”, wasn’t it? 😉
” Secularism ” means level playing field, and freedom of religion and belief. In no way does it mean banning religion.
T A Gilbert, yes the theory of pure secularism is nice but in practice it sometimes leads to people basically saying religion should be kept within your private home and that is it.
People just need to read some history and more politics if they think secularism never conflicts with religious freedom. It is about where to draw the line.
Did Tim send a special message to Christians at Easter? If not why not?
Interesting to note that in England and Wales 16-18 year olds can withdraw from religious assemblies if they wish – but in Scotland they can’t.
The Education (Scotland) Act 1980 continues to impose a statutory duty on all local authorities to provide religious education and religious observance in Scottish schools for children up to the age of 18.
Eddie Sammon: A secular state is the best guarantee of religious freedom. To achieve a secular state, religious privileges would have to be withdrawn. It is the withdrawal of such privileges that the religious object to, but they often try to dress it up as ‘discrimination’.
A classic case was free school transport for children attending ‘faith’ schools some distance from home, even when places were available at a nearer non-denominational school. This privilege has largely been withdrawn by LAs, as in times of cutbacks it became increasingly difficult to justify the cost (and in some LAs it ran into £millions per year). At the time, one of my daughters attended the local comp. However, it did not offer the mix of A levels she wanted to study, and to do so she had to attend a sixth form college in another town. I had to pay the cost of the transport the LA laid on. Had I been, say, a catholic, and the 6th form college was a catholic ‘faith’ school, the LA would have borne the cost of school transport. Completely indefensible, and I am glad that such privileges are being/have been withdrawn, although the circumstances (austerity policies) that started the process are of course deeply objectionable.
Over in Canada, self-described “feminist” Justin Trudeau marked Eid by speaking at a gender-segregated mosque which endorses, on its website, the physical punishment of wives. When asked by a journalist how he reconciled his feminism with this event, the best he could manage was that “different perspectives” should be respected. In other words: feminism for white western women, but segregation is OK for everybody else.
Apparently a third of Canadian mosques (down from a half a few years ago) are quite happy to let men and women share the same space. It’s a shame Trudeau didn’t choose to attend one of those instead.