Hiiraan Online
Thursday, December 24, 2015
MOGADISHU (HOL) – Somalia’s government has declared Thursday 24 as a national holiday to mark prophet Mohammed’s birthday, official said Thursday.
Thousands of Somalis, mostly Sufis hold celebratory processions for the annual birthday every year, however, some Islamic denominations including Wahhabism and Salafism disapprove its commemoration, considering it an ‘unnecessary’ religious ‘innovation’.
Announcing the new public holiday, Somalia’s parliament speaker Mohamed Sheikh Osman said the inclusion of the prophet’s birthdate into the country’s holidays would allow workers in the public sectors to observe the day.
The prophet’s birthday is celebrated across Somalia and the Islamic world every year, as some of the Somalis celebrate in large street and mosques processions, reciting stories on the life of Mohammed,
signifying their love for the prophet.
Often held at open grounds, the processions were popular before Islamists uprising in 2016 which overthrew the US-backed warlords.
The Islamist fighters banned the celebrations, forcing the Sufi followers to go underground before Al-Shabab fighters were ousted from the Somali capital and surrounding towns in 2011.
Mohammed’s date of birth is recognized as a national holiday in most of the Muslim-majority countries of the world except Saudi Arabia and Qatar, two countries that practice Wahhabi and Salafi Islamic creed.