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Parliament Will Debate on Whether Eid Will Be a Public Holiday

by in World on 17th October, 2018

A recent petition started by a Nurul Islam has garnered over 45,000 signatures, the petition asks for both Eid ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Adha to be made into a public holiday. The petition explains that a public holiday would allow families to come together and share Eid celebrations with the wider community. It seems some who aren’t Muslim would love an extra holiday and thus support the petition too and of course the Islamophobes have taken the time to come out.

What’s unusual about the petition is that for a debate to occur petitions must reach 100,000 but the committee have scheduled the debate for Religious festivals including Eid and Diwali as no other petitions reached 100,000. They have also recognised that the topic affects many groups and therefore “…that individually they may find it harder to meet the 100,000 signature threshold.”

The debate will take place on Monday 29th October, and will start at 4.30pm. You can watch it live and read the transcript of the debate the day after. The last response from the government on the topic was on the 26 June 2018: “The Government has no plans to create a public holiday to commemorate religious festivals such as Eid. The costs would be considerable expensive. The cost of the 2012 Diamond Jubilee holiday was around £1.2bn.”

Eid Petition: 45,602 as of October 17th 2018

Diwali Petition, 11,000 as of October 17th 2018

Selina Bakkar

Selina Bakkar

I'm a simply striving to be better and improve in different areas of my life through more self awareness, experiences and learning more about the deen. You'll find me talking about community, connection, planting & growing, seeking the truth in an age of propaganda and misinformation. This year I want to document more to do with food heritage and history so watch this space or reach out. Have a listen to the Amaliah Voices podcast where I talk passionately about Islam, nature, motherhooding and back home. Link in bio peeps. To join the Amaliah Writer Community email me at selina@amaliah.com IG: SelinaBakkar