Saudi Arabian cities planned fireworks and public performances Friday, according to reports.
Saudi Arabia's supreme court waited until Wednesday to rule that Eid al-Fitr would begin at sundown Thursday. Because the Muslim calendar is based on the lunar cycle, the celebration date is different worldwide. However, most Muslim countries take their cue from Saudi Arabia, home of the holy sites of Mecca and Medina.
Airports were jammed earlier this week as locals head abroad for vacations, and tens of thousands of pilgrims in Mecca and Media reversed course to head home, reported Agence France-Presse. Saudi businesses were closed for the week.
Saudi-based newspaper Arab News, however, wrote in an editorial that it would be a somber Eid:
Since this Eid coincides with the Sept. 11 attacks, the significant Muslim community in America and elsewhere in the West finds itself understandably tense. As if the endless posturing and tensions on the question of the Islamic center near Ground Zero were not enough, the powerful Christian right has added fuel to the fire by calling for “Burn a Qur’an Day’ to mark the 9/11 anniversary this week.
Saudi Arabia's 28.7 million population is 100 percent Muslim, according to the CIA World Factbook.
