Oh crap it's Sunday, get me to the office on time!

in yet another (successful) attempt at avoiding laundry and other domestic duties, I came across a story on White Pebble about Iraqi students protesting their week-ends being extended from one day off to two.

Before you feel selfish for wishing we could go to the 4-day work week (which is a really good idea in my not-so-humble opinion) you need to understand that it's not that they don't want a 2-day week-end, they just don't like the fact that the second day of their week-end is *gasp* Saturday and that is a holy day for Jews! Of course, my initial reaction to the article was "Oh dear Lord, they're pissed because the second day off is Shabbat for Jews?!? What the Hell is wrong with these people?" I knew the weekly Muslim holy day was Friday, but thought #1 this type of protest was a bit much, and #2 couldn't someone just have gone to whoever chose the day and said "Dude, we like the longer week-end, but Saturday's just not gonna work here"? I vaguely remembered hearing that Muslims start their holy days at sundown and decided to check the veracity of my recalled memory. This search was unsuccessful, but I did find out a few other interesting tidbits:

Friday was the day chosen by Muhammad to commemorate the creation of man on the "sixth day" of creation and to differentiate his followers from Christians and Jews. Muslims don't think of Sabbath the way Jews & Christians do, as the Qu'ran instructs Muslims to "disperse in the land for seeking livelihood after prayers are over." (62:9-10) because “He made the night for rest and the day for earning livelihood” (78:11).

I still don't understand why the Powers That Be in Iraq couldn't forsee adding the second day on Saturday as potentially being problematic. They should have known better or at least known to discuss their plans with community leaders; perhaps they're graduates of the W school of Social Ignorance with degrees in ethnic myopia. This doesn't exactly excuse the equally ridiculous over-reaction and protests by students which is most likely the result of years of anti-Jewish propaganda.

FYI: for anti-Muslim Christians who'd point to the audicity of Muhammad of "changing the Sabbath" to Thursday, it should be pointed out that Jesus and the apostles celebrated Sabbath starting at sundown on Friday through sundown on Saturday. The Christian sabbath was changed to Sunday by Constantine because he wanted it on the day to honor the Sun-god.

(yeah, I joogled a bit - you can guess what was #1 on google again)


Tags:Muslim;Religion;Sabbath

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