'We all turned into the Eid’s slaughtered lamb': Muslim high holiday interrupted by war

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - As Muslims celebrate one of the biggest holidays on their religious calendar on Monday, thousands of Syrians took to Facebook to highlight how, for those living in the war-torn country, a day of celebration is overshadowed by violence.

Eid al-Adha, a four-day holiday in the Muslim world, commemorates the moment God appeared to Abraham and told him to sacrifice his son, but then gave him an animal to slaughter instead. Beginning Monday, Muslims will slaughter an animal, and share its meat with the impoverished. They will also give one another gifts, and engage in prayer.

However, many Syrians, and Syrian refugees chose to commemorate the holiday by sharing photographs depicting deceased and injured children, and other images of bloodshed and destruction. Thousands of users on Facebook, including on Syrian refugee groups, sharing posts about the war-torn nation, often using the phrase: “This is the Eid in Syria.”

One of the most popular posts, depicting two children sitting in a graveyard, received almost 5,000 likes and 300 shares, and included the caption: “Children in the revolution. The city of Da’el in the first days of the Eid.” Da’el is a rebel-held city 60 miles south of Damascus.

Another post featured a poem, written in Arabic, about the destruction. “This is the Eid in Syria / Blood washes our faces / Every morning / We drink our own blood / Every morning / We wake up to slaughter / We go to sleep to slaughter / We don’t need Eid / We all turned into the Eid’s slaughtered lamb.”

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad appeared in Daraya, a Damascus suburb, on Monday. Last month, the rebel-held town surrendered to the Syrian government after four years of war, The New York Times reported. Flanked by members of his party, Assad warned he is “determined to retake every inch of Syria from the terrorists, and to restore peace and stability.”




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