Photos by Kamal Moon

Around 6,000 Muslims gathered Wednesday for the Eid al-Fitr prayer at the Baird Center in Milwaukee. Thousands more had prayed at 7:30 a.m at mosques throughout greater Milwaukee. 

Muslim families, dressed in their holiday best, flowed into the Baird Center in downtown Milwaukee Wednesday morning for the Eid al-Fitr prayer. 

Children skipped through the center’s bright halls. Most families stopped many times to greet friends and relatives with hugs, handshakes and kisses, and wished each other Eid Mubarak, a blessed Eid. Eid al-Fitr is one of Islam’s two major annual holidays. It celebrates the completion of Ramadan and God’s blessings.

As the worshippers made their way to a large room, lined up facing Mecca, Islam’s holiest site, and laid out their prayer rugs, a special Takbir, a chant praising God and expressing faith, played through the loudspeakers: Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar La Ilaha Ila Allah Wa Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar Wa Lillahi Alhamd (God is the greatest, God is the greatest. There is no deity besides God. God is the greatest. To God all praise belongs.)

“It’s a very large celebration. People are happy and joyous,” Islamic Society of Milwaukee executive director Othman Atta told a Channel 58 reporter, while the hall filled. (See the Channel 58 story here.)

“We’re going to have 6,000 people coming in here. Over 2,000 came to our 7:30 a.m. service at the Islamic Center (Greater Milwaukee’s largest mosque). We have other mosques all around Milwaukee. We have tens of thousands of Muslims who call Milwaukee home.”

“This is a very unique Eid for us,” said Atta’s sister, Janan Najeeb, founder of both the Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition and Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine, who was standing nearby. “It is overshadowed by the genocide in Gaza, particularly because we have quite a number of community members from Gaza who have lost family members.”

Eid al-Fitr began at sunset Tuesday night with the first sighting of the crescent moon. “Since the holiday began, 300 more people in Gaza were killed; over 41,000 people killed in the last six months,” Atta said. “Our hearts are in Gaza. We hung signs in support of Gaza; we will offer witness and pledge support of Gaza and all who are oppressed,” he said.

“We are hoping and calling for a total and immediate ceasefire and an end to the slaughter of the innocent people of Gaza,” he continued. “Eid is a time of reflection, after fasting for a whole month, a time when people are deeply embedded in their faith and really connected. We are united today not only for the Eid but to stand up for human justice as well.”

Local families grieve “those who can’t celebrate with us”

“We are supposed to be here celebrating but it is hard to celebrate when you have family members who are still experiencing conditions of war,” said Omar Saleh, 28, an engineer from Milwaukee and a long-time ISM member. “Family members who are supposed to be with us are no longer here to celebrate.”

More than 50 relatives on his mother’s side died in Gaza in a single Israeli airstrike in October on a family home where they had gathered as they fled Israeli bombs in northern Gaza. 

“Most notably, Nadia Sakalla, my mother’s aunt,” Saleh said. “She was a really kind and caring person who took care of everyone around her, especially her orphaned niece and nephew. She was killed along with cousin Hani, his wife and three children, the youngest 4 months old. They were killed at home; they had nothing to do with any of the hostilities.”

Staying in touch with the rest of their relatives is difficult, he added. “There is not much connection on their end, whether wifi or cellular. Whenever they are able to reach out to us on social media or see our messages, that’s the only way.”

Omar Saleh of Milwaukee spoke with reporters before the Eid al-Fitr prayer about his first Eid holiday after more than 50 of his close relatives were killed by a single Israeli airstrike in Gaza. 

A reporter asked Saleh, “Fighting has been going on there for so long. What is different now?”

“The amount of death and destruction is on a scale that has never been seen before,” he answered. “You can see it in the number of civilians killed, the medical professionals who have been killed, the journalists who have been killed, and in the number of our community members here who have family members who have been killed.

“Something worth highlighting is the role our country plays in this,” he added. “My aunt was most-likely killed by an American-supplied, American-made bomb. That is the saddest part, that we failed them, that we couldn’t do anything to stop it.

“Eid is usually a time of celebration. This year it is a time of reflection and remembrance. We remember the people who are supposed to be celebrating who can’t or are no longer with us. That’s what we’re thinking about today.”

Eid prayers, zakat, charity, and duas for Gaza

Milwaukee’s Muslims celebrate Eid al-Fitr with family and community celebrations, feasting, worship, charity and making zakat (tithing). This year it also included a special dua (prayer) for Gaza and a communal pledge to stand against oppression in Gaza and everywhere there is injustice.

Following Eid salah (prayer of worship), ISM imam Rami Bleibel called on the ummah (the Muslim community) to make “a special dua (prayer of request to God) for our brothers and sisters in Gaza.”

ISM executive director Atta, wearing a scarf of red, green and white, passionately led the community in a pledge for Gaza and all oppressed people. After each stanza, he asked the worshippers if they agreed. Each time, the answer was a resounding, “Yes!”

“This is our pledge,” he said. “We pledge to always remain in our faith and in God’s promise of accountability and justice. 

“We pledge to always stand firm and resolute before Allah against evil, against oppression, against occupation, against ethnic cleansing and against genocide. 

“We pledge to uphold the equality of all human beings. We pledge to never accept or tolerate a supremacist ideology, whether it is based on religion or ethnicity or race. 

“We pledge that we will never stand silent before individuals or governments, including our own government here in the United States, who promote, support or defend ideologies or policies that view others as lesser human beings.

“We pledge to stand with the people of Gaza and Palestine, and all oppressed people all over the world. 

“We pledge to support the human rights and dignity of all human beings, particularly those living under occupation and oppression, wherever they happen to be. 

“We pledge to elect and support government representatives of conscience, and we pledge to continue to campaign against those who are supportive of this genocide. 

“We pledge to continue to work with people of morality of any religion or background–Muslim, Christian, Jewish and others if they’re people of morality and principle. We’ll work with them and we’ll stand together, regardless of their religion or ideological background, against the extremism and intolerance of Israeli supporters in the United States.

“We pledge to work for a free Gaza, for a free Al Aqsa mosque, for a free Jerusalem and a free Palestine.”