Russian Muslims ask authorities to add their holidays to federal list (Russian Muslims ask authorities to add their holidays to federal list.pdf)

https://www.rt.com/politics/357747-muslims-ask-russian-authorities-to/Russian Muslims ask authorities to add their holidays to federal listPublished time: 31 Aug, 2016 11:16Muslims pray at the Festival of Sacrifice Eid al-Adha outside the Jameh Mosque,Moscow. © Vladimir Astapkovich / SputnikAn activist has appealed to the Russian president and prime minister to make thetwo major Muslim holidays official paid days off, claiming that otherwise thenationwide celebration of Christmas can be viewed as discrimination.Private citizen Yury Kurbanov published a petition with this request on thechange.org website and the initiative is gaining popularity.

In the message, he sayshe is acting “on behalf of all Russian Muslims” who, according to his estimation,make up to 20 percent of the population.Kurbanov notes that currently many Muslims are moving from territories whereIslam is a traditional religion to other regions of the Russian Federation.

Kurbanovthen points out that Orthodox Christmas is currently an official paid day off inRussia, despite the fact that it is celebrated only by Russian Orthodox Christians.Kurbanov wants the authorities to add two major Muslim holidays – Eid al-Adhaand Eid al-Fitr - added to the federal list of paid days off, saying that otherwiseMuslims who live outside the traditionally-Muslim jurisdictions cannot whollydedicate themselves to celebrations as required by their religion.Currently Muslim holidays are declared paid days off in such Russian regions asCrimea, Bashkortostan, Adygeya, Dagestan, Ingushetia, Chechnya and KabardinoBalkariya.Also, the predominantly Buddhist republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia have daysoff on the Buddhist New Year and the republic of Sakha-Yakutia has an officialday off on the pagan midsummer holiday of Yhyakh.This is not the first time representatives of Russian Muslim community havesought recognition of their holidays at a federal level.

In 2008, a similar requestwas made by the head of the Muslim Cultural Association, MukhamedSalyakhetdinov, and in 2011, by the head of the Republic of Bashkiria, RustemKhamitov.Currently the Russian law recognizes nine official nationwide holidays, includingRussian Orthodox Christmas celebrated on January 7. However, every year thegovernment passes a separate decree on days off, often combining several datesinto short periods of nationwide vacations.

For example, in 2017 the New Year andChristmas vacations will last from January 1 till January 9.It should be noted that Russian authorities are not legally bound to consider anypetitions launched through US-registered platform change.org. Russia also has anofficial website for petitions called ‘The Russian Public Initiative’. Unlikechange.org, it requires registration and allows only Russian citizens to leavesignatures under pleas, but once a petition on the platform gets 100,000 signaturesthe parliament is legally bound to consider the document.Muslim activist Yury Kurbanov posted a petition on the change.org, which asksthe Russian president and prime minister to make two major Muslim holidays Eidal-Adha and Eid-al-Fitr, known as “Куран-байрам” and “Ураза-байрам”, officialpaid days off.

He argues his position, that Orthodox Christmas is an official paidday off, although it affects only Russian Orthodox Christians. Also many Muslimslive in regions of Russia, where Islam isn’t traditional religion, and they can’tcelebrate the holidays as in Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia, Crimea and otherregions where these holidays are paid days off. At the moment petition hasgathered less than a thousand votes for a week, but the article says that initiative isgaining popularity. In conclusion it’s worth noting, that the website change.orgisn’t official website for Russian authorities. They consider the petitions only fromthe website roi.ru which collected a hundred thousand votes..