Thursday, March 16, 2000
Muslims celebrate ending of hajj
Feast, prayers reunite families
BY RICHELLE THOMPSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Shaheen Toor shows her North College Hill High School class the simple garb she would for hajj in Mecca.
(Glenn Hartong photo)
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More than 2,000 Tristate Muslims are expected to gather today at the gold-domed mosque of the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati to celebrate a major feast day.
The Islam holiday, called Eid ul-Adha, is marked by prayers, gifts and food. For the world's billion Muslims, the feast day is a symbolic end to hajj, a pilgrimage to holy sites.
“Everybody who's not going on hajj is looking forward to the big holiday,” said Karen Dabdoub, administrator of the Islamic Center, the largest mosque in the Tristate. The day often is a reunion of family and friends. Children receive money, candy and gifts, and most try to buy new clothes, she said.
At least six area families will celebrate the feast day in Saudi Arabia, where they performed hajj. In all, more than 6,000 Americans and 2 million Mus lims from around the world made the pilgrimage to Mecca, the holiest city of Islam.
Hajj is one of five pillars or obligations of Islam. Others are faith, daily prayers, offering regular charity and fasting. Hajj is required of all Muslims at least once in their lives if they are physically and financially able.
“It's a journey people always want to take,” said Shaheen Toor, a Loveland woman who left last week with her husband, Fasih, for Mecca. “I feel so humbled now that (God has) given me this opportunity.”
Islam is among the fastest-growing religions in the country, with an estimated 6 million followers. That's up from 2 million listed in the 1982 World Almanac. There are 10,000 Muslims in the Tristate.
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