How Did You Celebrate Eid?

We are through Ramadan and Eid Mubarak has been called which means that Muslims can now get back to eating during the day instead of eating all night. ‘Oh’, I hear you say, you thought that they fasted? Well, no, not exactly. If you missed the fact that Ramadan has been upon us then you must have found the secret to happiness: complete unawareness of both the mainstream and social media.

It was hard not to know that Ramadan was taking place this year as we really had it shoved in our face at every possible opportunity. We had Ramadan themed messages at King’s Cross Station, Ramadan lights in Central London and the Bishop Basher of Canterbury could not tweet out fast enough his best wishes to the Muslim ‘community’ for Ramadan and Eid with a few Iftars thrown in.

I must get my virtue signal in early, however, lest I incur a hate crime next time I venture north of the border. I have Muslim friends to whom I extend my deepest sympathy during Ramadan, I have been in Saudi Arabia during the festival, and I have been shown nothing but respect, even being allowed to eat out of sight of the locals and being permitted to drink in meetings at the insistence of a senior government minister. My work in Bahrain goes on the back burner for a few weeks and that is all fine. These are their countries, their religion and their cultures.

But here in the United Kingdom, we are not a Muslim country, we are a Christian country – both for believers and cultural Christians such as Richard Dawkins that remains important – although we seem to be losing our grip on it. One local restaurant in my town had a note on the door informing would be diners that alcohol would not be served during Ramadan. No problem profiting from the alcoholic proclivities of the Infidels for the rest of the year then? The sheer number of shops in our town, including traditional fish and chip shops, that display the halal food logo (حلال) is growing. The cultural appropriation continues.

I was passing through Heathrow Airport on the day of Eid and the BBC was interviewing some bearded bigot. The strapline informed us that millions of Muslims worldwide were now celebrating Eid Mubarak. Forgive me if I am mistaken, since I never watch the BBC voluntarily, but I hazard a guess that there was no comparable news item informing us that millions of Christians worldwide were celebrating the end of Lent and the miracle of the risen Lord. What is there to report about the end of Ramadan that could be of such interest to the British public?

The other way I was aware that Eid had been called (it’s a ‘will they, won’t they?’ kind of thing) was that my booked taxi to take me to the station did not arrive, and I missed my train to London. After twenty minutes waiting, I cancelled the taxi and took a bus which passed one of the local mosques which is where all the taxi drivers were, the majority of drivers in my city being Muslim. They are a fine bunch of lads and I like to surprise them with my traditional Arab greeting ‘Assalamu alaikum’; no harm in that. But at the proclamation of Eid they simply don’t turn up for work, with impunity. How is that acceptable?

Call me a culturally insensitive curmudgeon, but I duly celebrated Eid with a lovely pork and apple pie in the British Airways First Class lounge, washed down with a crisp cold glass of white Rioja.

Roger Watson is a retired academic, editor and writer. He is a columnist with Unity News Network and writes regularly for a range of conservative journals including The Salisbury Review and The European Conservative. He has travelled and worked extensively in the Far East and the Middle East. He lives in Kingston upon Hull, UK.

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