As images of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s hanging hit television screens and newspaper pages across the globe, Muslims gathered Sunday in the United States to mark Eid al-Adha, a holiday that celebrates sacrifice and praise of God.
In the Chicago area, thousands of Muslims donned formal attire and attended prayer services in mosques, community centers and other meeting places. Close to 10,000 prayed in a vast ballroom Sunday morning in the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont.
The annual services took on heightened attention and a certain incongruity in the aftermath of Hussein’s execution. Although many Muslims attending the Rosemont services were reluctant to focus on the former Iraqi dictator’s death, they said it was an extremely poor decision to carry out the act during a Muslim holy period.
Muslims stressed that they came to the services to praise Allah and not to criticize events on the other side of the globe. Still, Muslims expressed displeasure at the swiftness and timing of the execution.
“This is a happy day for us, and we are unhappy that the Iraqi government chose this time for this,” said Qazi Sanaullah, a Pakistani native and U.S. Postal Service carrier who lives in Hanover Park. “What would it have hurt to wait a couple more days? They didn’t think.”
Muslim leaders said it would be difficult to find anyone on Sunday who felt sympathy for the dictator, even though most, like Hussein, are Sunni. But they noted that in the United States, a predominantly Christian nation, executions are not carried out over the Christmas season.
“His execution was not done in the proper way, and I am upset about it, for sure,” said Amjed Hashmi, chairman of the Central Eid Committee of Greater Chicago. “This is something against the accepted universal laws–the death sentence–and it was done in such haste and it was done now. It was not an act of justice.”
Eid al-Adha is a three-day holiday, beginning Sunday, to commemorate the prophet Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael on God’s command. Muslims call it a feast of sacrifice and are instructed to sacrifice an animal, usually a lamb or sheep.
Some Muslims here seek out a farm where they can carry out the sacrifice, but most send money to their native lands to help fund a sacrifice.
In Chicago, Eid services used to draw up to 30,000 Muslims to McCormick Place. But in recent years, urban sprawl swept up thousands of Chicago’s Muslims and the community is now spread from the city to far-flung suburbs. Fewer want to make the trek to a huge meeting place in Chicago.
Still, Muslims traveled from Wisconsin, Indiana and Iowa to Rosemont on Sunday. The holiday serves as a social gathering as well as a time to seek mercy from God.
Muslims packed the corridors of the convention center, hugging and talking about such topics as the demise of Saddam to the welfare of overseas relatives to the fortunes of the Chicago Bears. Many men and women wore colorful traditional clothing, but a sprinkling of Bears hats and jackets were in evidence as well.
During the second of two prayer services, Hafiz Shaf Quadri, who led the men in prayer, implored those assembled to live a merciful life and be ever obedient to Allah. Such actions, in conjunction with prayer during Eid, will help God forgive them of their sins, he said.
“These are the days of celebration for the mercy of Allah,” he told rows upon rows of barefooted men who kneeled and sat cross-legged. “He has been so merciful and bountiful to us.”
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dmendell@tribune.com
