RELIGION
SENEGAL – Two Eid El fitr celebrated on Friday and Saturday
Muslims will celebrate the feast of Aid El fitr marking the end of Ramadan divided. As proof, the Coordination of the Muslims of Senegal (CMS), announcing yesterday the appearance of the moon, called on the faithful to pray Eid El fitr this Friday, April 21, while the National Commission on Consultation on the Lunar Crescent, set the Korité for tomorrow Saturday.
While yesterday, like many Arab Muslim countries, the moon was seen in many places in the centre and south of the country, the National Commission on the Concertation on the Lunar Crescent, The most representative religious body of the country broke a little after the breaking of the fast last night a communiqué to announce the prayer of Eid El Fitr for this Saturday.
These two prayers bring to the fore the profound problem of Islam in Senegal, under the domination of the confraternities Better this division, which does not date from today, seems increasingly denounced by some observers or theologians who criticize the credibility of the National Commission headed by Imam Diene of the Great Mosque of Dakar.
Thus, with the exception of the Omarian family of Dakar, all the religious homes of the country including Touba, Tivaoune, Medina Baye, Léona Niassène, Ndiassane, Medina Gounass, Yoff, in phase with the Commission pray this samed.
The date of the Tabaski festival in Côte d’Ivoire, also called Aid-El-Kébir, is known. It is set for Friday, June 6, 2025. The information is made official through a communiqué of the High Council of Imams (COSIM) and the Council of Sunni Imams (CODISS). These are the two Muslim religious authorities in the country.
“COSIM and CODISS inform the national community that the station in Arafat will take place on Thursday, June 5, 2025. Therefore, the festival of Tabaski will be celebrated in Côte d’Ivoire, incha’Allah, on Friday, June 6, 2025, corresponding to 10 Zoul-Hijja 1446 of the Hégire,” the statement reads.
Eid-al-Kebir is considered the most important holiday in the Muslim calendar. It is marked by the sacrifice of a ram. This sacrificial gesture recalls the act of faith of the prophet Ibrahim, ready to sacrifice his son in obedience to Allah.
Sources: africa-sur7
Studies commissioned by the organizing committee of the great Magal of Touba indicate that 5,875,536 people responded to the call of Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba on Monday, September 4, 2023. The figure is the conclusion of investigations conducted by a team of experts led by Moubarack Lô, economist. In comparison with 2015, the difference is enormous even if, in its time, 4,119,551 pilgrims were counted in the religious city.
Ahmadou Bamba died in 1927 in Diourbel. But his legacy is perpetuated since then by his sons: Serigne Mouhamadou Moustapha Mbacké (1927-1945), El Hadj Falilou Mbacké (1945-1968), Serigne Abdoul Lahat Mbacké (1968-1989), Serigne Abdou Khadr Mbacké (1989-1990), Serigne Saliou Mbacké (1990-2007).
The disappearance in 2007 of Serigne Saliou Mbacké opened the accession of grandsons to the Khalifat: Serigne Mouhamadou Bara Mbacké (2007-2010), Serigne Sidy Moctar Mbacké (2010-2018).
Serigne Mountakha Bassirou Mbacké is the General Caliph of the Mourides since 2018.
The Magal, a Wolof term meaning to pay tribute, celebrate, magnify, is commemorated in memory of this exile which marks the beginning of a sum of hardships borne in conscience by the sheikh, following a pact contracted with his creator.
Each year, tens of thousands of pilgrims take the city of Touba by storm to gather and pray on the occasion of the Magal, which is also a moment of conviviality and hospitality through the ‘Berndae’, these hearty meals served to pilgrims.
Bandits killed seven worshippers praying in two mosques, including the head of a village self-defense group in volatile northern Nigeria, Kaduna State Police announced on September 1, 2023.
Early Friday evening in Ikara district, a dozen members of criminal gangs arrived on motorcycles and opened fire on worshippers from the Saya-Saya community who were praying in a mosque, killing six of them, the state police spokesman said, Mansir Hassan, in a statement issued Saturday.
The attackers then attacked another mosque in a nearby village, where they killed one person and wounded three others, before stealing four motorcycles and disappearing into the bush, he added.
According to Abdulrahman Yusuf, the head of the Say-Saya community, the head of the village self-defence group is among those killed.
“We believe that he was the main target of the attack and that the bandits followed him to the mosque,” added Mr. Yusuf, one of the faithful survivors of the attack.
Kaduna is one of the states in central and northwestern Nigeria regularly bloodied by bandit groups that attack villages, kill and kidnap residents and burn their homes after looting them.
Criminals regularly target mosques and churches where they kidnap worshippers to obtain future ransoms or to avenge their comrades killed or arrested by local self-defence groups who fight them.
The Kaduna authorities are worried about a growing rapprochement between these gangs and jihadist groups that have been fighting the state for nearly 15 years for control of the northeast.
