Members of the Muslim community have appealed to people to celebrate Id-ul-Azha with a difference this year, by maintaining cleanliness and refraining from boasts about their sacrifice on social media. Pune-based non-profit organisation Initiative for Peace and Harmony (IPH) has taken the lead to promote this message.
IPH co-founder and president Inayat Kazi said people often tend to forget the spirit of the festival. “It is common to see people put up pictures of goats that have been bought for sacrifice. Some even boast about the huge amounts of money they spend, while some post pictures after the sacrifice has been made. We are appealing to the community members not to do so,” Mr. Kazi said.
He said that such behaviour robs the sacrifice of its essence. “Cleanliness is one of the main initiatives of IPH. We believe that cleanliness is next to godliness and we are pushing people to maintain cleanliness as much as possible,” he said.
Community members purchase goats starting from a fortnight before the festival. After the sacrifice is made, a large portion of the meat is distributed among the poor.
Helping Kerala
Some community members have also decided to cut down on the cost of purchasing goats and sending money for flood relief work in Kerala. Govandi resident Furkan Merchant, who purchased two goats for ₹28,000 and ₹22,000 last year plans to spend only half this year. “At least a dozen people in my area are planning to collect money this way,” Mr. Merchant said.
He said people spend lakhs on goats, and slight cost-cutting can help make large contributions in relief work.