EID AL-ADHA
Cebu City police will secure the hundreds of Muslims who will observe the Feast of the Sacrifice or the Eid al-Adha, at the Plaza Independencia.
Senior Supt. Joel Doria, CCPO director, said that they would concentrate their forces in the Plaza Independencia where the Muslim would gather to pray.
“We will secure the area until the program will end,” Doria said.
Aside from the police officers securing the area in the ground, there will also be police officers from the explosives ordnance division, which include K9 personnel.
Doria also assured that they would exercise maximum tolerance for any rallies that would be conducted today.
Alex Minalang, Settlement Division of National Commission on Muslim Filipino-Visayas chief, said that Eid al-Adha is an important event for them.
Minalang added that it is as much a Muslim holiday as it is a Christian and a Jewish occasion.
“Because the sacrifice of Abraham is recognized in the Holy Books of the Muslims, Christians and Jews. Abraham as the focal point of these three faiths led to their being called the Abrahamic faiths,” Minalang said.
On Aug. 29, President Rodrigo Duterte declared Sept. 1 (Friday), a national regular holiday in observance of Eid’l Adha or the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice.
Eid’l Adha is the 10th day in the month of Hajj or Islamic Pilgrimage to Mecca where Muslims pay homage to Abraham’s supreme act of sacrifice and signifies mankind’s obedience to God.
There are more than 60,000 Muslims now residing in Cebu City and province, according to Malo Manonggiring, the director for NCMF-Visayas.
Ninety percent of this population are Maranaos, while the 10 percent are Tausugs, Maguindanaoans and Yakans. /with Correspondent Jessa Mae O. Sotto