CEBU, Philippines - The Muslim community in Cebu City celebrated Eid Al-Adha by slaughtering 10 cows whose meat will be distributed to an estimated 1,000 poor Muslim families in Cebu City, Mandaue City, and Lapu-Lapu City.
Ibrahim Halil, vice president of the United Islamic Cultural Center of the Philippines (UNICEP), explained that the celebration means slaughtering of livestock to be offered to the poor. Halil himself killed each cow manually.
UNICEP has been in Cebu City for three years now and since then has been slaughtering 10 cows as help for the poor.
Eid Al-Adha, which also means “Festival of Sacrifice” or “Greater Eid,” is an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael as an act of obedience to God, before God intervened to provide him with a sheep to sacrifice instead.
The funds, Halil, said, came from their rich Muslim brothers and sisters in other countries.
“The rich are obliged to give and share what they have to the needy people. Funds came from Turkey, Korea, Indonesia and other countries,” he said, thanking the Christian community for giving value to their celebration.
Malacañang had declared yesterday as a holiday. Halil said the declaration only shows that the relationship between Christians and Muslims in the Philippines is getting stronger.
Aside from slaughtering cows during Ed Al-Adha, Halil said they also share their blessings by sending poor but deserving students to school. “We help young children to go to school and to promote education,” he said. (FREEMAN)