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Obama Issued Proclamations for Ramadan, Eid al Fitr, Eid al Adha, Hajj and Earth Day--But Not Easter Tuesday, April 26, 2011 By Fred Lucas Washington (CNSNews.com) – The White House updated its response to questions Monday to explain why the president did not put out a formal proclamation for Easter--after putting out proclamations for Muslim holidays and Earth Day. Obama attended Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington on Easter Sunday and held a White House prayer breakfast last Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney pointed out. On Friday, the President Barack Obama issued a proclamation on Earth Day. However, two...

The lunar calendar that Muslims follow for religious holidays is creating a potential for misunderstandings or worse in a year when American Muslims are already confronting a spike in assaults on their faith and protests against new mosques. Eid al-Fitr, a joyous holiday marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, this year falls around Sept. 11. Muslim leaders fear that their gatherings for prayer and festivities could be misinterpreted by those unfamiliar with Islam as a celebration of the 2001 terrorist strikes. The Muslim Public Affairs Council, an advocacy group based in Los Angeles, is contacting law enforcement...

NEW YORK (AP) -- The lunar calendar that Muslims follow for religious holidays is creating a potential for misunderstandings or worse in a year when American Muslims are already confronting a spike in assaults on their faith and protests against new mosques. Eid al-Fitr, a joyous holiday marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, this year falls around Sept. 11.

BANGOR, Maine — Members of the Muslim community came together Sunday morning to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, a month of fasting. More than 100 men, women and children gathered at Spectacular Events on Griffin Road because their mosque in Orono is not large enough to accommodate such a large crowd. “Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar,” the congregation prayed in Arabic. “Laa ilaaha illa Allah. Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar. Walillaahil hamd.” “Allah is the most great, Allah is the most great,” is how the prayer translates into English, according to Ahmed Abdelmajeed of Bangor, who...

The NY Times fails to mention that Eid al-Adha falls on Sunday, September 11 in the year 2016 and Eid al-Fitr will begin at sunset on September 9 and continue to sunset on Friday September 10 in the year 2010. These “civil dates” for the two feast days are projected by the Islamic Umm al-Qura calendar maintained by the Saudi Government. They are the earliest possible dates for sighting of the crescent moon at Mecca. The feasts may fall one or two days later depending on a Saudi “hilal committee” responsible to spot the first visible crescent moon at Mecca—so...

Tyson Foods backed down on it’s contract with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) to recognize Eid al-Fitr rather than Labor Day.

Workers at Tyson Foods' poultry processing plant in Shelbyville will no longer have a paid day off on Labor Day, but will instead take the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr in the fall. A recent press release from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) stated that a new contract at the Shelbyville facility "implements a new holiday to accommodate the ... Muslim workers at the plant." The RWDSU stated that "the five-year contract creates an additional paid holiday, Iidal Fitil, a Muslim holiday that occurs toward the end of Ramadan." read full article at Times-Gazette

One of America's foremost experts on Islam says New York's decision to honor a Muslim holiday this weekend shows the city has not learned an important lesson from the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. New York's famous Empire State Building is lit up green today in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid, the biggest festival in the Muslim calendar marking the end of Ramadan. City officials say the lighting, which will continue through Sunday, "will become an annual event in the same tradition of the yearly lightings for Christmas and Hanukah." Robert Spencer, the director of Jihad Watch,...

The Empire State Building is aglow in green this weekend to honor Muslim holiday .

Local Muslims will mark Eid al Fitr, the Festival of Fast-breaking, not only by feasting, but by sharing their bounty with Madison's low-income and homeless people. By Saturday, the end of the holy month of Ramadan when Muslims fast daily from dawn to dusk, they are familiar with that gnawing feeling inside that signals mealtime is past. "We feel what it is to be hungry, what it is to be poor," said Sadat Abiri, a member of the Islamic Center of Madison who is organizing the meal. Lamb with rice, pizza and fruit head up a menu designed to appeal...

The incidents were first reported online by Egyptian bloggers, some of whom saw large number of men harassing the women and ripping off their clothes. It all happened over the Eid al-Fitr period starting on 23 October, as thousands of young men thronged the streets of central Cairo to celebrate the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. One blogger who took pictures of what happened dubbed the incidents "sexual voracity down town". According to the bloggers, the attackers targeted veiled as well as unveiled women who happened to be on their own. The state media ignored the incidents, but...

Mideast chemists stock up on sex stimulant Viagra amid increasing demand for it during Muslim feast.DUBAI - Chemists across the conservative Middle East are stocking up on sex stimulant Viagra in the hope of huge sales during the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr later this week, manufacturer Pfizer said Wednesday. A company statement said pharmacies across the region had increased their stocks of the anti-impotence blue pills "after reporting significant sales increases for the drug over the Eid al-Fitr festival in previous years". "Figures reveal that during the holiday period, a time when families gather to celebrate Eid, pharmacists have...

RIYADH - Saudi Arabia's security forces have found a pick-up truck packed with more than a tonne of explosives after raiding a militant cell primed to launch a "terrorist operation" in Riyadh, officials say. State television showed footage of the truck, seized after a clash on Tuesday in which two wanted militants were killed, filled with the explosives, rocket-propelled grenades and gas cylinders to magnify the force of any explosion. Officials say Tuesday's raid by security forces thwarted an imminent attack during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, less than three weeks after suspected al Qaeda bombers killed at least...

A bomb blast has injured at least five people at a mosque in western India, police say. The bomb exploded during Friday prayers in the town of Parbhani east of the financial capital, Bombay, a police spokesman said. More follows...