Bloody Muslim ritual of offering banned in Moscow

A lot of Muscovites, including children, could see Muslims slaughtering lambs outside mosques

Kurban Bairam, or Offering Day, a sacred holiday for Muslim people, is celebrated on January 10-12. The ritual of offering stkarted in Muslim mosques after morning prayers. According to the ancient tradition of the holiday, Muslims should make a sacrifice during the holiday, slaughtering a lamb, a cow cub, or a camel.

Kurban Bairam is a traditional Muslim holiday. However, Muslims try to observe all rituals and customs outside their home countries. Moscow, for example, was shocked with Kurban Bairam celebrations during the previous several years. Russian people, including children, could see a group of Muslim men slaughtering sheep right in the streets of Moscow, in the yards of apartment buildings.

Several organizations fighting for animal rights have sent an annual petition to Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov asking the Moscow government to forbid the ritual of offering in the city. The advocates of animal rights believe that religious rituals or any other dogmas are not to be considered an excuse for human brutality. Muscovites living next to the mosque in Khachaturyan Street in Moscow were shocked to see groups of people slaughtering sheep in trucks opposite the mosque. The snow around the trucks was soaked with blood.

The bloody ritual is not allowed to be conducted in public in Moscow this year, according to special instructions issued by the Muslim clergy. In other words, animals are not allowed to be slaughtered outside mosques.

”The ritual will be conducted in five Moscow mosques this year. One animal will be sacrificed in each of the five mosques,” the first deputy chairman of the Council of Muftis of Russia, Damir Hazrat Gizatulin said.

If the bloody ritual is performed outside mosques, it will be labeled as a crime. A spokesman for the Moscow Police Department, Sergei Ziryanov, said that the Moscow police will not allow the rituals of offering in the streets of the city. “Those violating the law will be called into criminal account according to Article 245 of the Russian Penal Code – “The Brutal Treatment of Animals,” the official said. “The days, which some view as a holiday, should not become a torture for others,” he added.

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