Every so often in Australia we get some minority group spokesperson stand up and declare the current injustice of the day as the worst thing to ever happen to anyone. For the most part the general public listen, nod, pretend to care and then go back to their daily lives.

Indians complain about getting bashed every second day, Jewish societies claim Kyle Sandilands concentration camp comments were the worst thing to happen to Jewish people since the holocaust and there’s always the Aboriginals who just complain about everything given any opportunity.

Just over a week ago now, the latest whinge came from ‘leading Muslim spokesperson’ Keysar Trad. I can’t help but wonder if ‘leading Muslim spokesperson’ is the new politically correct term for sheik but in any case, Trad believes Australia should observe the two most important Muslim public holidays.

Initially my reaction was to dismiss Trad’s remarks as yet another attempt to inroad Muslim culture into mainstream Australian society. After some thought I figured well fair enough. Australia isn’t really a Christian nation so why not entertain the idea of different religious holidays?

Not knowing what the two most important Muslim public holidays were (the news.com.au article conveniently leaves them out), I hit up Wikipedia.

Seriously, instead of the stereotypical dismissive ‘go live in some country that celebrates Muslim holidays this is Australia’, has anyone actually bothered to look at their religious holidays?

I still have no idea which are the main public holidays in Islam but I’m going to assume Wikipedia lists them in order of importance.



Ashura

Ashura is commemorated by Shi’a Muslims on the ninth and tenth day of Muharram on the Islamic Calendar. Ashura is an Arabic word meaning “ten”, and according to Sunni schools of thought it is a day of optional fasting. Jews in the city of Madina fasted only one day, (on Yom Kippur the 10th of Tishrei) so the Prophet Muhammad would fast too.

For Shi’a Muslims this is a day of mourning.


An optional day of fasting that is also a day of mourning.

No offense guys but a public holiday isn’t something I want to waste sitting around not eating and being sad over. Sure most people don’t celebrate the religious side of Christmas and Easter etc. but Islam doesn’t exactly have the best track record for not taking itself seriously.

I don’t particularly want to be that guy who’s running around all happy stuffing my face with pork hotdogs getting greasy looks from all the fasting mourners out there. Suburban effigies and flag burning anyone?

With Easter there’s chocolate and Christmas has it’s presents. Exactly what are we supposed to be sharing or celebrating in a non-religious way during Ashura?



Laylat al-Qadr

Laylat al-Qadr is Arabic for “The Night of Power”. It falls on one of the last ten days of Ramadan on an odd numbered day. It is considered the holiest night of the year, since it is the night in which the Qur’an was first revealed. It is also considered better than a thousand months [Qur'an 97:1-3].

It is said that if a person performs voluntary worship on this night, that worship is equal to a thousand months or approximately 80 years.


Whilst a nighttime public holiday might sound like a novel idea, most people already have the night off so why the need for a daytime holiday? I appreciate if you’re working in a carpark or stocking shelves at Woolies but cmon really, there’s enough people who work overnight that we need to declare a holiday over it?

What the are us non religious types supposed to do? Typically we’d have a family lunch or dinner but Laylat al-Qadr falls during Ramadan, which is a month of no food between dawn and dusk.

Again with the suburban effigies and flag burning.

It seems every Islamic public holiday involves lots of praying and not eating food. Sorry guys but as far as spending my public holiday goes, sitting around being thankful for all the food I’m not eating just doesn’t cut it.

No offense, but take out the religious symbolism and Islam has some pretty crappy public holidays. They just don’t translate well into a secular setting.

Trad’s comments came after the New South Wales government passed laws prohibiting employers to demand that employees work on Australian public holidays. Presumably this is because some Muslims wanted to trade in their holidays for their much more significant Islamic holy days (or nights).

In theory this sounds all good and fair but the reality? What are you going to do, rock up on Christmas day to work and twiddle your thumbs because the rest of the country is off enjoying themselves?


Whatever we decide as a nation it should be uniform across the country. People are still free to take time off to celebrate their religious holidays but at a loss of holiday entitlement (annual leave).

Meanwhile if you want to entertain the idea that the nation should observe your religious holiday at least offer us some activity we can participate in without feeling like we’ve trampled on the meaning of the day.

Christmas and Easter can be safely celebrated without all the religious nonsense by sharing a good meal together and catching up. With fasting and prayer the centre point of Islamic holidays, I simply don’t see what muslims in Australia expect the rest of us will be doing with our newfound spare time on these days.

Anyone?



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  2. Revolution Muslim threatens South Park with violence
  3. Hizb ut-Tahrir: Time to ban these morons in Australia
  4. Senator Bernadi pushes for a burqa ban in Australia
  5. Sharia law in Australia? It’s already here.