Muslim Holiday ‘Eclipses’ School Opening Day in Moscow

Paul Goble

            Staunton, September 2 – Two hundred thousand Muslims, most from Central Asia and most relatively young, took part in Kurban Bayram celebrations in the city of Moscow yesterday, easily “eclipsing” the first day of school and highlighting just how Islamic the Russian capital has become, the URA n.ews agency said (ura.news/news/1052302693).

            (An additional quarter million Muslims were projected to mark the holiday in Moscow oblast where many gastarbeiters now live, bringing the total number of Islamic celebrants in the capital region to more than 400,000 (rg.ru/2017/08/29/reg-cfo/kurban-bajram-v-moskve-i-podmoskove-vstretiat-400-tysiach-musulman.html).)

                Not only were many in Moscow elsewhere angry about the fact that the authorities rescheduled the openings of schools near the mosques of the capital, but residents were also upset that they had to make long detours around the crowds to get where they normally were able to go more quickly and directly.

            If the Muscovites were aware, they might also have been upset by the fact that when the ceremonies began at 7:00 am, Muslim leaders read out messages of official greetings from President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, and Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin.

            The overwhelming majority of those attending the services were young people, some of whom did not know the required prayers or even the meaning of the holiday and had to ask their elders for guidance. Many took pictures with their cellphones to send home to show people in Central Asia that Kurban Bayram in Moscow is marked in a serious way.

            The URA.ru correspondent surveyed the opinion of residents nearby after the services were over – the Muslims had to travel to the suburbs to one of the sites where animal sacrifices were permitted – and got an earful from non-Muslims about all this.

            One local woman complained that “after they built this mosque, it became impossible to live here.” She and many others also expressed anger about the fact that the school opening seemed “less important to the authorities than a Muslim holiday.”  But one elderly Russian woman proved an exception.

            She said that “religion is important. If opening day had been shifted because of an Orthodox holiday, no one would have gotten upset.”