Comments

• By Nunyabiz on 10/14 06:57 AM

  number one you nut bag Christians, this event was not "Shoved down your throats". You would actually have to go way out of your way to attend it and pay to get in. What Christians do is shove their religious BS down everybody's throats by desperately trying to get into Public schools, put religious manure in federal courthouses and scattered all around public areas such as malls and parks. Get a grip, there are just as many people that ignorantly believe in Islam as there are that believe in Christianity. You would think that would bring you all together instead of acting like small children. But then again you all believe in fairy tales so I guess this is to be expected.

• By Nadeem Iqbal on 10/12 02:54 PM

  Jan, Melissa, Arlene, By me, Phillip, and other posters. Great comments and I understand the "fear of unknown" is a big factor in many people reflections. I am here in RTP area for last 27 years and have participated in developing International Festival 24 years, several other organizations, and now this "NC Eid Festival, Inc." I have been to Christian churches, have held dialogue with interfaith people including Jews, Christians, Muslims, and ethicist. Have been to "German Festival" held for over 20 years in RTP area and to "Diwali", a Hindu religious activity, celebrated as a cultural event every October for the last nine years at Booth Theatre, and several other similar occasions. I learned a lot from these activities. Similarly, this particular event, Cary Eid Festival, is a pure cultural event put together by a large number of volunteers, both Muslims and non-Muslims, with a burning desire to share the common goodness among all of us. Numerous volunteers have spent thousands of hours of their personal time to make these events a reality just to share what they used to celebrate only among themselves. It is a great opportunity for any one to come out and join these celebrations to build a common consensus of "oneness" as this is the real path to peace and safety to all human beings on this face of earth. We will celebrate this "American Holiday Event" again next year at the end of September and hope to see you there. Keep visiting www.nceidfestival.org for the calendar.

• By Rehab on 10/12 11:38 AM

  Phillip- thank you for attending and for your comments. I recieved it after my post.

• By Rehab on 10/12 11:30 AM

  I must say as an organizer of this event I am a little disappointed in the comments posted. I wonder if any of the posters attended the festival? There was no religous, political or cultural agenda for this festival. This was purely a celebration of how Muslims across the globe celebrate their holiday- Eid. It featured music, dance, food and vendors from the Triangle. We were very pleased with the turnout at the festival and hope it will continue to grow every year as we continue to celebrate what unites all of us - love, understanding and tolerance for each other. As an educated and liberal Muslim mother I will continue to educate and celebrate with my kids the many Religions and Cultures that make everyone special. We will continue to attend and support any and all events that educate us and provide our family with a fun event to attend. Thank you to everyone who attended, participated, and volunteered at the festival.

• By Phillip on 10/12 10:51 AM

  I was fortunate enough to be at this event and let me tell you my experience. This event was actually very cultural in nature and not religious. I did not feel any religious vibes at all and was extremely surprised by the beauty and diversity of the culture and the food was WOW! They even had Scottish and Puerto Rican Dancers! I would encourage everyone to check this out if it happens again next year and take your pre-conditioned thoughts about Muslims and Islam and table them and observe for yourselves and make up your own mind about this festival and what it represents - I did and I learned a lot. My thought was - we share our events, Christmas, Easter, 4th of July, etc, with the different religions and cultures living in our beautiful country - I am very happy when they share their events and culture with us!

• By Marc on 10/12 08:49 AM

  I think some folks need to grow up a bit. I noticed in your criticism of a lack of diversity you failed to mention the larger Hindu Diwali festival held in the same arena the day before! I am Scottish, there are highland games festivals held all other this state, again not a word. I assume you all dont complain about Christmas vacations and festivities organized by various city councils. I suppose Christmas has nothing to do with Jesus any more you will argue. Let the Muslims, Hindu's, Jains, Jews organize their own festivals and let them enjoy it without acting like stupid little children caught up in your own little bigot fest. You may have a point if this was all paid from the public purse, it certainly is not. The only religious festivals celebrated that are paid fully by the taxpayer is the one that happen's around the 25th of December, you know Santa Day :)

• By Me on 10/12 02:33 AM

  Be sure to let me know when the Sikh festival is coming to Alltell Pavilion or Booth Ampitheatre. Perhaps the Jainism or Huguenot festival? No Jewish festival either at a large public venue that is major media news?? Actually, none of these. It would sure make sense diversitywise, yet everything we hear about nowadays is about us understanding Muslim celebrations. How many Muslims go to Jewish festivals so they can understand Judaism, or Sikhism for that matter? Sorry to sound sarcastic, it's not my intent. I just would like to illustrate the huge disparity here and the liberal, singularly-focused slant media coverage as well.

• By Arlene on 10/12 01:08 AM

  Also - why no Catholic or Methodist festival held at a large PUBLIC (not private or religious venue, but a public, taxpayer supported) venue, with a good bit of media coverage? Definitely seems slanted. I would just like to see equal attention paid to other nationalities and religions, and it most definitely is not in the media nor in the schools.

• By Arlene on 10/12 01:03 AM

  Actually it does have to do with nationality and religion. I have to say that sadly, I do agree with below poster (Jan) that it does seem to be a specific agenda being shoved down our throats. In my child's school (this was when we lived in a different state too, with no Mexican population), all the school festivals celebrated Hispanic things. My family has both French and Dutch origins and NEITHER has ever been taught or celebrated in a school. A Slovak friend made the same observation. Same goes for certain religions - are Catholic festivals pushed on most people? Not really. Nationality and religion are important to everyone and should definitely be balanced. I feel like some with an agenda are pushing certain groups on us, like Hispanic or Muslim, without asking those groups to learn about French, Dutch, or even Slovak people. Sounds like an agenda to me.

• By Melissa on 10/11 11:02 PM

  This has nothing to do with nationality; where people are from. It's a part of religion...just as Christmas/Easter is celebrated by the Christians and Hanukkah is celebrated by the Jewish. Please educate yourselves.

• By jan on 10/11 07:02 PM

  next we'll all become muslim, it's what they want seriously though, where is the german festival? the dutch festival? seems quite a bit skewed to me, and I am serious about that. perhaps those aren't as politically correct.

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