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Washington does not recognize Easter or Yom Kippur as state holidays. The state of Washington, which does not officially recognize Easter or Yom Kippur as state holidays, became the first state in the nation to recognize the two Islamic holidays of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha as unpaid state-recognized holidays when Democrat Governor Bob Ferguson signed the legislation into law this month. “Senate Bill 5106, sponsored by Sen. Yasmin Trudeau (D-Tacoma), adds both Eid holidays to a list of 20 other state holidays. Rep. Osman Salahuddin (D-Redmond) sponsored the companion bill,” Ferguson’s website stated. “The new law does not establish...

A man walking two dogs at San Francisco’s McLaren Park verbally attacked a Muslim group gathering for a communal prayer Monday morning for the annual Eid al-Adha holiday, members of the Islamic Center of San Francisco told SFGATE.

Muslim parents recently erupted when the Jersey City school board announced it would not suddenly cancel classes for all students to mark Islam’s Eid al-Adha holiday, due Sept. 24. The Muslim parents loudly protested even though the board said students “can continue to take days off for religious purposes without penalty,” including Sept. 24. But the parents wanted the state to accept their religious event, and to impose their holiday on other students. One Muslim woman who attended the September 17 meeting said, “‘We’re no longer the minority, that’s clear from tonight. We’re going to be the majority soon.” According...

French authorities warn farmers of Jewish thieves ahead of Yom Kippur Municipal veterinary service says Jews and Muslims may try to steal chickens and sheep to use in ‘unauthorized sacrifices’ for holidays Veterinarians in a municipality near Paris warned farmers of an elevated risk of theft of sheep and fowl ahead of the Muslim and Jewish holidays of Eid al-Adha and Yom Kippur, respectively. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories FREE SIGN UP! The warning, which provoked angry reactions on the part of communal leaders who felt it was discriminatory, came...

In a sermon marking Eid Al-Adha, delivered at the Al-Maqari Mosque in Irbid, Jordan, Sheikh Ahmad Mana’i talked about “conspiracies” carried out by America, Russia, and Europe, along with the Jews, whom he called “the brothers of pigs and apes,” and traitors from among the Arabs. He prayed to Allah to support the Sunnis in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and to destroy the “criminal Rafidites” and the “plundering Jews,” and called upon Him to “destroy America completely” and to “destroy Russia completely as well.” The sermon aired on Yarmouk TV on September 12. Sheikh Ahmad Mana’i: “We are witnessing conspiracies by...

Over 15,000 Muslims gathered in the parking lot of Angel Stadium on Monday morning to celebrate Eid al-Adha (the “Sacrifice Feast”), the second of two major Islamic holidays that occurs during the time of the annual hajj pilgrimage. The hajj is a mandatory religious pilgrimage for Muslims that must be carried out at least once in each Muslim’s lifetime. Eid al-Adha is a four-day festival marking the end of the hajj pilgrimage. “We had two services, and many people ended up praying outside the fence because there was no room,” Nicole Bovey Alhakawati, spokeswoman for the Islamic Institute of Orange...

Barack ObamaÂ’s fantasy Islam made a new appearance Monday, when he issued a statement congratulating and praising Muslims on the occasion of the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha: Michelle and I extend our warmest wishes to Muslims across our country and around the world who are celebrating Eid al-Adha. This special holiday is a time to honor the sacrifice, resolve, and commitment to God demonstrated by Abraham. In speaking of Abraham, it is important to remember that there is no parallel in the QurÂ’an to Genesis 22:15-18, in which Abraham is rewarded for his faith and told he will...

Warning: This is not from The Onion. Are you a devout Muslim worried about completing your Eid al-Adha animal sacrifice? Are you tired of fighting the crowds to get that goat or lamb you’ve had your eye on since the hajj started? Tired of cleaning up all the blood and guts while your family impatiently waits to prepare the meal? Well, fear no more. The Islamic Development Bank, based in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, takes all the worry out of your animal sacrifice needs by offering the electronic coupon animal sacrifice system.

ISIS has marked Eid by hanging prisoners upside down from meat hooks and 'butchering them like sheep' in a gruesome new execution video. In one sickening scene, men accused of being US spies are filmed having their throats cut in a slaughter house in Deir ez-Zor, north-eastern Syria. The video, named 'The Making of Illusion' was released on the first day of the Muslim holy time of Eid al-Adha and, bizarrely, features short clips showing actors Simon Pegg and Tom Cruise in the 2015 movie Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation.

ACTRESS Brigitte Bardot has led calls for Muslims in France not to slaughter animals in public during this weekend's Eid celebrations. ... In France the government has been providing skips because many followers discard their carcasses to rot in the streets after they have killed them. ... Thousands of Muslims order sheep and then go to their local abattoirs to kill them to celebrate the feast of the slaughter, while others still carry out the acts in the street. However, Ms Bardot, 81, has called for practising Muslims to avoid making religious sacrifices in public particularly after terror attacks in...

The Baltimore County Board of Education on Tuesday voted 6-5 against closing schools for two Muslim holidays when they fall on school days. According to the Baltimore Sun, the Muslim community had advocated for more than a decade to close Baltimore schools on the Islamic holidays of Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr. The vote followed a heated discussion among school board members as dozens of Muslims waited in the audience. The results of the vote prompted shouts of “Injustice!” by some in attendance, and the board had to call a five-minute recess before continuing. …

Assyrian community speaks Aramaic, provides a warm welcome to Israelis ADABASHI, Turkey, Feb. 27 (JTA) — I never intended to visit Adabashi. I was heading toward the border crossing between Turkey and Iraq, hoping to get to northern Iraq before the widely anticipated war began. But the Turkish border authorities would not hear of any journalists running around in that Kurdish-dominated part of Iraq. Not just Israeli journalists, any journalists. As a result, I and a group of fellow journalists found ourselves traveling along the long Turkish border between Iraq and Syria — until we spotted a church tower off...

The Philadelphia School District will add two Muslim holidays to its calendar, placing it among the first in the nation to do so. In what would be an even rarer step, Mayor Kenney said Tuesday he also hopes to adopt the holidays for city workers. He has created a task force to determine how the change can be accomplished. A spokesman from the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington said his group is not aware of any cities that have included the holidays, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, in their municipal calendars. "Philadelphia's history is based on being a place...

Full title: 'We're going to be the majority soon! Furious Muslim parents taunt New Jersey school board over religious holiday closure. Muslim families wanted Jersey City schools to close down September 24 in observance of Eid al-Adha holiday. After initially approving closure, school board ultimately voted to keep schools open so as not to disrupt lives of non-Muslim families. Students who choose to stay home Thursday to celebrate the holiday will not be penalized. By Snejana Farberov For Dailymail.com

New York City public schools are closed to observe the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. Thursday was the first time the schools serving 1.1 million pupils closed for a Muslim holiday. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced this year that the city’s public schools would observe the two Muslim holy days of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.

THESE are the graphic and confronting images that are enough to put you off your food. But this footage, shot by Animals Australia activists on the ground in Kuwait, reveal the shocking treatment and illegal slaughter of Australian sheep in a market notorious for cruelty. And it is far from pretty. According to the animals group, hundreds of Australian sheep are being sold illegally from a notoriously cruel livestock market in Kuwait, which is just five minutes down the road from Meat and Livestock Australia inspectors. Animals Australia say the shocking breach of practice is of more concern as the...

The Muslim community in Montgomery County didn’t get the results it was hoping for as it tried to make a major Islamic holy day an official school holiday. Islamic families spoke at a school board meeting Tuesday to ask that Eid al-Adha, a holy day that Muslims compare to Christmas or Yom Kippur, be added to the school calendar. But school board members said they did not include Eid al-Adha in the newly-approved 2014-2015 calendar because they can’t legally close school for religious reasons unless the holiday causes operational issues, like absenteeism. …

21 November 2011 A bus, part of a convoy carrying Turkish pilgrims, has come under gun attack in central Syria, Turkish media and officials say. At least two people, one of them a bus driver, were injured in the attack near the flashpoint city of Homs, they say. The passengers, who had attended the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, later arrived back in Turkey. Private news agency Dogan showed images of the vehicle with one of its side windows broken. "We confirm that an attack took place in Syria," a foreign ministry official told AFP news agency, without giving any...

Huge numbers of goats, cows and even camels will be slaughtered in Pakistani on Wednesday homes to mark the Islamic holy day of Eid al-Adha. The sacrificial offering of around 6m animals will allow families to fulfil a religious duty, guarantee some much appreciated meat handouts to the poor and provide nearly half of the annual requirement of the country's leather industry. It will also generate an extraordinary cash windfall for some of Pakistan's most dangerous militant groups. Thinly disguised front organisations have been gearing up to compete against each other and legitimate charities to collect as many animal skins...

As President Obama prepares to unveil his long-deliberated war strategy, the Taliban's supreme commander declared today that U.S.-led forces would find only defeat, dishonor and "a bed of thorns" in Afghanistan. The warning, contained in a statement by Mullah Mohammed Omar , the movement's reclusive leader, was issued on the eve of one of the year's most important Muslim holidays, Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice. It marks the end of the hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, which is made by millions of observant Muslims. In his missive -- punctuated by the flowery phrases and high-flown rhetoric typically...