Mayor de Blasio joined yesterday Muslim New Yorkers during their Eid al-Adha prayer service in Jamaica, Queens. These are his remarks :
“Thank you for giving me the honor of joining you for this beautiful gathering. I want to thank Mr. Hussain for the kind introduction, and for your work on behalf of the entire community of the Jamaica Muslim Center.
We are gathered together for a wonderful moment of celebration – we celebrate Eid Al Adha. And today we mark progress – we mark progress because so many people here worked long and hard to make sure that your families and your children could celebrate this holiday, and know that children would not have to be in school during this moment so important.
And this is a day when all over New York City school is not in session and we are showing the same understanding of the importance of this holiday for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who are Muslim as we show for the Christians in this city and for Jews in this city. We have created equality where the great holidays of all three faiths are being recognized.
This is something to celebrate. It’s not only that families will be together today in joy, it’s also that we’re sending a message to our city, to our nation, and to our world that we have to value all faiths and all people.
I want to thank the leaders who have gathered. This is a moment of solidarity. So many people are here together to share in this moment. First, I want to thank your many leaders here including Dr. Rahman and Dr. Billah for their great leadership. I thank them.
I want to thank the elected officials who are here: Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, Assembly Member Weprin, Assembly Member Hyndman, Assembly Member Kim, Councilmember Daneek Miller – the only Muslim member of the New York City Council and a great leader of the community.
Councilmember Rory Lancman, former Comptroller John Liu, and two members of my team who are here – our Chair of the Human Rights Commission, Carmelyn Malalis; and my senior advisor, Sarah Sayeed.
We thank you all.
We gather immediately after the commemoration of 9/11 and we cannot say enough times that 9/11 reminds us of our common humanity. Those who attacked us attacked every one of us – every kind of New Yorker.
On that day, Muslims and Christians and Jews were all lost, people of other faiths as well. We all shared in that suffering. We all stood by each other shoulder-to-shoulder. People lifted each other up. That is the spirit of this city.
We do not let any bias or any effort to divide us interfere with that spirit. And that continues to this day. We lost two good men and the community came together and people all over New York City felt the loss of the community – the loss of Maulana Akonjee and Thara Uddin was felt all over this city.
There was a sense of solidarity and we need to understand that that means we all realize we’re in this together.
And then the loss of Nazma Khanam brought sorrow to us all. But again, that sorrow was felt across communities because we understand we are a city of many peoples but we have one thing that unites us – we are all New Yorkers. We stand shoulder-to-shoulder every day. And our job, all of us, is to help each other to understand the many faiths and cultures that make up this extraordinary city – this beacon to the world.
I want to say something very clearly, it’s so important to say especially given some of the painful things that have been said around this country – some of the hateful and divisive things. Let me say – New York City is a better place because of our Muslim community.
And the United States of America is a better nation because of our Muslim community.
And we will stand up to hatred. We will stand up to division. We will stand up to anyone who spews bias and, even more so, anyone who acts on that bias in a criminal way. And protecting not just this community, protecting every single New Yorker –
Our 900 brave men and women who make up the Muslim Society of the NYPD. Let’s thank them.
I’ll conclude by saying this is a holy time when you celebrate Abraham, a prophet for Muslims and Jews and Christians alike, a prophet who kept his faith with God.
Let’s keep our faith with each other. Let’s keep our faith in this city. Together we will make it stronger still. And I thank you for this great honor to have been with you today.
Eid Mubarak. »
Photo credit: Mayor’s Office
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