American Muslims Nervous Ramadan Celebration Will Be Seen As Celebrating 9/11

For Muslims, the end of the holy month of Ramadan is typically cause for celebration, with three days of feasting and socializing after a month of daytime fasting.

This year, though, many American Muslims are greeting Ramadan’s end with a measure of worry, as the holiday coincides with the anniversary of the September 11, 2001.

“Most Muslim communities will be reluctant to have something that’s perceived to be celebratory on 9/11 even though we’re not celebrating 9/11,” said Ibrahim Hooper, National Communications Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). “There’s a whole cottage industry of Muslim bashers now who would seize on that. Unfortunately, these are the times we live in.”

With many American Muslims already feeling intense scrutiny over the controversy surrounding a proposed Islamic center and mosque near New York’s ground zero, many mosques and Islamic groups are dramatically altering their usual plans for Eid ul-Fitr, the end of Ramadan holiday.

In the United States, most mosques are expected to celebrate the holiday – typically called Eid – this Friday, September 10, though some may celebrate it a day later – Saturday, September 11 – because of their interpretation of the lunar cycle. Ordinarily, festivities – bazaars, potlucks, bowling alley parties – would extend for three days, following more solemn prayers on the morning of Eid itself.

The Islamic Cultural Center of Fresno, California recently announced that it was cancelling its Eid carnival, originally scheduled for Saturday.

“The decision to cancel the Carnival was due to the recent increase in the levels of hostilities against Islam and Muslims following the proposal to construct an Islamic Center in lower Manhattan,” a statement on the center’s web site said, “and to deprive extremists from the opportunity to claim that American Muslims are celebrating 9/11.”

Eid has never coincided with the anniversary of the September 11 attacks before. Because Muslims follow a lunar calendar, the holiday falls roughly 11 days earlier with each passing year.

Read the full CNN article here.