Eid al-Adha celebration in BARMM solemn, peaceful

COTABATO CITY — Muslims held peaceful Eid al-Adha open-field congregational worship rites early on Wednesday, where preachers talked about the need for interfaith solidarity to boost efforts of addressing underdevelopment in the local communities.

Major Gen. Jose Vladimir R. Cagara, commander of the Army’s 6^th Infantry Division, and Brig. Gen. Christopher M. Abecia, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, separately told reporters on Wednesday that the traditional outdoor Eid al-Adha gatherings in areas under their jurisdiction went on smoothly, facilitated with the help of local executives and their constituent-Moro leaders.

Thousands of worshipers attended outdoor Eid al-Adha activities in the regional capitol of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in Cotabato city and in school campuses and mosques around.

Clerics also called on worshippers gathered in different areas to adhere to Islamic preachings on respect for religions and promotion of religious solidarity among Muslims and non-Muslims.

In his Eid al-Adha message forwarded to reporters early on Wednesday, Maguindanao del Norte’s vice-governor, Marshall I. Sinsuat, encouraged his constituents in the province and the residents of his hometown, Datu Blah Sinsuat, to continue supporting the police, the military and the BARMM government’s joint peacebuilding programs meant to foster interfaith cohesion among the Muslim, Christian and indigenous non-Moro communities in Central Mindanao.

“Ecumenism and patience and tolerance are what we need to spread in our communities while we do our best to sustain the peace and sustainable development now taking off in our province,” Mr. Sinsuat said.

He said he is grateful to all the Muslim and Christian community leaders in Datu Blah Sinsuat for setting good examples on how to set aside religious and cultural barriers to achieve co-existence in their barangays.

Eid al-Adha, also known as the feast of sacrifice, is one of the two important holidays in Islam. The other is the Eid al-Fitr, or the culmination of the Ramadan fasting season, where Muslims fast from dawn to dusk for one lunar cycle, based on the Islamic Hirah lunar-based calendar, as a religious obligation and as reparation for wrongdoings. — John Felix M. Unson