Somalia’s Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs on Thursday officially reinstated the public holiday of Mawlid al-Nabi, which celebrates the birthday of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. The holiday was effectively driven underground by Islamist militants decades ago, because followers of certain Muslim traditions consider the observance to be distasteful or heretical.
Mawlid is a popular tradition with Sufi Muslims, who were the majority in Somalia until warlords and Islamist militias killed and displaced them. The Sufis are especially loathed by al-Shabaab, the ultra-violent al-Qaeda-linked group that terrorizes Somalia.
The Sufi have several practices that strict Muslims from other sects find objectionable, including gravestone burials for their dead, which their adversaries consider idolatry. Celebrating Muhammad’s birthday is also denounced as a form of idol worship. Islamic scholars from sects like the strict Wahhabism based in Saudi Arabia argue that since Muhammad’s birthday was not celebrated during his life, it should not be treated as a holiday after his death.
Sufi Muslims found themselves attacked on all sides during the bloody chaos of the 1990s, driven into refugee camps and chased out of Somalia entirely. Sufism began making a comeback after al-Shabaab insurgents were driven from the capital city of Mogadishu in 2011. Many Sufis celebrated the return of Mawlid to the official holiday calendar as a sign of their renewed strength.
“To those who oppose this celebration, I say, ‘fear God.’ This is the month in which our prophet was born, and celebrating it does not contradict Islamic teachings,” Sufi scholar Sheikh Abati Abba Nur exclaimed, as quoted by the Associated Press (AP) on Thursday.
The AP described a large and jubilant celebration in Somalia’s capital:
In the capital, Mogadishu, the streets swelled with thousands of worshippers, many of them young people in white garments and waving bright green flags. Crowds spilled out of mosques and into open areas saturated with rhythmic chants and devotional song. Clerics recited Quranic verse via loudspeakers as people swayed in unison, clapping and ululating in joy.
Some young people filmed the processions on their phones, livestreaming chants to friends abroad, while others hoisted banners adorned with verses of praise. Security forces, rifles slung over their shoulders, stood at the edges of the crowds, scanning for threats but unable to suppress the festive mood.
Somalia’s Mawlid tradition includes a mass sacrifice of camels, an important economic resource and cultural symbol in the country. TRT Afrika reported that some 1,200 camels were slaughtered at the Islamic Center in Mogadishu, with their meat to be distributed to the poor. The sacrificial camels were purchased with “donations from within and outside the country.”
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