Too much is happening on this auspicious day. The month long festival of Ramzan ends and Eid-ul-Fitr is being celebrated by Muslim brethren all over the globe. In the Maharashtra State in India, Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated with great pomp and vigour. Fortunately, wiser sense has also prevailed on Pastor Terry Jones of the church of Florida who has agreed not to burn copies of Quran as earlier decided by him.
Eid is celebrated with pomp and gaiety and breakfast is had with dates, which are considered a ritual, and sweets. Elders and children, wear new clothes and the smiles are visible everywhere. They greet one and all, irrespective of caste, colour and creed chanting ‘Eid mubarak’.
During the festival Muslims exchange gifts, and greet everyone as a mark of solidarity and brotherhood. It is believed that the Prophet of Islam saw the moon on this day and said, “O God make this moon a symbol of peace for us’, thereby the Prophet expressed the true spirit of Eid to promote spiritual harmony and a peaceful environment in the world.
Muslims throng the Idgaahs’ on this day to offer two units of collective prayers to recall the teachings of Islam, advocate peace, spirituality and pray to God to bestow His blessings upon all to spread the word of love and affection amongst people,
September Eleventh Twenty Ten, symbolizes peace and universal brotherhood. We should look forward to a harmonious co-existence and thoughts should be of exchange of love and mutual co-existence. There should be love in the air as today is also the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi.
Ganesh Chaturthi is celeberated with pomp and gaiety by Hindus all over the world as the birthday of Lord Ganesha. This festival is also known as Vinayak Chaturthi. It is elaborately celebrated in Maharashtra State and ends today after a ten day celebrations.
The life like clay statues of Lord Ganesha are made, decorated and placed on raised platforms in homes or in elaborately decorated outdoor tents for people to view and pay their homage.
Coconut and flowers are offered to the Lord and sandal paste is applied to the idol and shalokas are chanted.
Lord Ganesha is worshipped for 10 days and on the 11th day, the idol is taken through the streets in a procession accompanied with dancing, singing, to be immersed in a river or the sea symbolizing a ritual see-off of the Lord in his journey towards his abode in Kailash while taking away with him the misfortunes of all man.
All join in this final procession shouting “Ganapathi Bappa Morya, Purchya Varshi Laukariya” (O father Ganesha, come again early next year). After the final offering of coconuts, flowers and camphor is made, people carry the idol to the river to immerse it.
The whole community comes to worship Ganesha in beautifully done tents. These also serve as the venue for free medical checkup, blood donation camps, charity for the poor, dramatic performances, films, devotional songs, etc. during the days of the festival.
And today, eleventh day of the ninth month, some wiser sense has prevailed on Pastor Terry Jones of Florida that he has agreed not to burn the copies of Quran in the church in Florida. He was categorically told by Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State USA, not to venture with this blasphemous misdeed and somehow he agreed last night.
The Rev Terry Jones had said that more than 100 death threats would not put him off Saturday’s event, when he plans to lead the burning of 200 copies of the Muslim holy book at his Dove World Outreach Centre in Gainesville, Florida. Unfortunately the twin towers of New York were destroyed on this date, but this is no way to avenge that.
David Petraeus, the US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, warned of retaliatory action against US troops after protests took place in the capital Kabul at which effigies of Jones were burned alongside the American flag.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs echoed the concerns raised by Petraeus. “Any type of activity like that that puts our troops in harm’s way would be a concern to this administration,” Gibbs said.
Jones had said that he “understood” those concerns but would press ahead anyway. But wiser sense has prevailed and he has agreed not to do it now. Good for the peace in the world.
At a meal last night marking the breaking of the Ramadan fast at the state department, Clinton said: “We sit down together for this meal on a day when the news is carrying reports that a pastor down in Gainesville, Florida, plans to burn the holy Qur’an on September 11. I am heartened by the clear, unequivocal condemnation of this disrespectful, disgraceful act that has come from American religious leaders of all faiths, from evangelical Christians to Jewish rabbis as well as secular US leaders and opinion-makers.
India condemns the plan of a small Florida Church pastor to burn copies of the holy Quran to mark the 9/11 attacks and called on US authorities to take “strong action” to prevent such an “outrage” being committed. Union Home Minister P Chidambaram while deploring Pastor Terry Jones’s move to burn copies of Islam’s holiest text on September 11 also urged the Indian media to exercise “great restraint” over the coverage of the act to help maintain peace and harmony.
The Rev. Terry Jones has rightly agreed not to go ahead with this plan as he is supposed to respect other religions as much as he respects his own and being a Pastor of the Church he should have known that all along. And this would have serious ramifications all over the world which the myopic Pastor could never have visualised.
If you love your religion, first learn to respect others’ religion also. Let’s move forward on this nine, eleven twenty ten and try to bring a lasting peace all over the world.
Ravi Matah.