COX'S BAZAR (BANGLADESH): Nearly 1,000,000 Rohingya Muslims marked Eid al-Adha on Wednesday on the earth's greatest refugee camp, almost a 12 months to the day since a brutal military crackdown drove the persecuted minority from Myanmar in massive numbers.
Prayers have been introduced in makeshift mosques across southern Bangladesh to celebrate the Islamic competition of sacrifice as cows have been slaughtered in muddy fields around the sprawling camps.
In Kutupalong, a huge hill settlement crammed with masses of thousands of refugees, a muezzin known as the devoted to pray as youngsters played on a wooden carousel and ran about in dirt alleyways in new clothes for the special day.
For many refugees, this Eid al-Adha is the primary since their violent expulsion from western Myanmar a 12 months in the past in a marketing campaign of orchestrated violence likened through US and UN officers to ethnic cleaning.
Myanmar's military, backed through armed Buddhist militias, started sweeping through Rohingya villages in August 2017 simply days prior to Eid celebrations were given underway.
Memories of his torched hometown, and misery in Bangladesh, overshadowed festivities for 19-year-old Mohammad Issa, one of the crucial 700,000 Rohingya who fled the bloody purge.
"In Myanmar we had money, we had cattle and land. Eid was happier there," he advised AFP close to a row of reeking pit latrines in Jamtoli camp, a brand new settlement for recently-arrived refugees.
Muslims traditionally sacrifice animals for the three-day Eid al-Adha banquet, a tribute to the prophet Abraham slaughtering a lamb after God spared Ishmael, his son.
Those able to make the sacrifice referred to as qurbani will devour one of the most meat and provides the rest to the poor not able to shop for food.
In Cox's Bazar close to the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, where squalid camps host generations of Rohingya refugees expelled from western Myanmar, there may be a lot need, and little to move around.
Cows, goats and sheep flooded native markets catering to the displaced Muslims within the lead up to Eid.
Some better-off families pooled no matter money they may muster to make the Islamic sacrifice, buying shares in a cow or goat.
But for most refugees — barred from legally working, and surviving hand to mouth on charity — such luxuries are wildly beyond their method.
The sight of animals being fattened for slaughter taunted Mohammad Amin, a youngster who remembered the home-cooked meat delicacies and special presents reserved for the holiest Islamic joyful celebration back domestic.
"But here, we don't have any money to slaughter cows or buy new clothes," the downcast 15-year-old advised AFP.
The influx of refugees delivered a bumper 12 months for Bangladeshi livestock dealer Aktar Hussain and others like him, who counted wads of money at a hectic livestock marketplace marketplace adjacent to the camps.
"This has been my best year yet," he advised AFP, as potential Rohingya consumers tested a robust brown cow in a muddy clearing.
"Last year, I sold 15 cows at Eid. This year, I've already sold 50."
The competition differs from Eid al-Fitr, the other main competition within the Islamic calendar, which was once celebrated in June in Muslim-majority Bangladesh after the fasting month of Ramadan.
Prayers have been introduced in makeshift mosques across southern Bangladesh to celebrate the Islamic competition of sacrifice as cows have been slaughtered in muddy fields around the sprawling camps.
In Kutupalong, a huge hill settlement crammed with masses of thousands of refugees, a muezzin known as the devoted to pray as youngsters played on a wooden carousel and ran about in dirt alleyways in new clothes for the special day.
For many refugees, this Eid al-Adha is the primary since their violent expulsion from western Myanmar a 12 months in the past in a marketing campaign of orchestrated violence likened through US and UN officers to ethnic cleaning.
Myanmar's military, backed through armed Buddhist militias, started sweeping through Rohingya villages in August 2017 simply days prior to Eid celebrations were given underway.
Memories of his torched hometown, and misery in Bangladesh, overshadowed festivities for 19-year-old Mohammad Issa, one of the crucial 700,000 Rohingya who fled the bloody purge.
"In Myanmar we had money, we had cattle and land. Eid was happier there," he advised AFP close to a row of reeking pit latrines in Jamtoli camp, a brand new settlement for recently-arrived refugees.
Muslims traditionally sacrifice animals for the three-day Eid al-Adha banquet, a tribute to the prophet Abraham slaughtering a lamb after God spared Ishmael, his son.
Those able to make the sacrifice referred to as qurbani will devour one of the most meat and provides the rest to the poor not able to shop for food.
In Cox's Bazar close to the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, where squalid camps host generations of Rohingya refugees expelled from western Myanmar, there may be a lot need, and little to move around.
Cows, goats and sheep flooded native markets catering to the displaced Muslims within the lead up to Eid.
Some better-off families pooled no matter money they may muster to make the Islamic sacrifice, buying shares in a cow or goat.
But for most refugees — barred from legally working, and surviving hand to mouth on charity — such luxuries are wildly beyond their method.
The sight of animals being fattened for slaughter taunted Mohammad Amin, a youngster who remembered the home-cooked meat delicacies and special presents reserved for the holiest Islamic joyful celebration back domestic.
"But here, we don't have any money to slaughter cows or buy new clothes," the downcast 15-year-old advised AFP.
The influx of refugees delivered a bumper 12 months for Bangladeshi livestock dealer Aktar Hussain and others like him, who counted wads of money at a hectic livestock marketplace marketplace adjacent to the camps.
"This has been my best year yet," he advised AFP, as potential Rohingya consumers tested a robust brown cow in a muddy clearing.
"Last year, I sold 15 cows at Eid. This year, I've already sold 50."
The competition differs from Eid al-Fitr, the other main competition within the Islamic calendar, which was once celebrated in June in Muslim-majority Bangladesh after the fasting month of Ramadan.
Rohingya mark Eid, one year after Myanmar crisis began
![Rohingya mark Eid, one year after Myanmar crisis began]()
Reviewed by Kailash
on
August 22, 2018
Rating:
