Nigerian Muslims want New Hijri Day to be a public holiday.

LAGOS, February 22, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – While congratulating Muslims worldwide for the New Hijri year, a Nigerian Islamic group has renewed its call for the Islamic New Year day to be a public holiday.

According to This Day Online Web site Tuesday, February 22, Ansar-Ud-Deen Society of Nigeria (AUD) issued a statement congratulating Muslims of the world for the advent of the Hijri 1426 year.

In the press release, signed by its National President, Alhaji Bisiriyu Onisarotu, the group said that for years now, they have appealed to the Federal Government to declare “Awwal Muharram” (First of Muharram) as a public holiday.

This will, he added, enable the Muslim world to celebrate the New Year and to use the occasion to organize a national prayer.

“In this era of reformation and national dialogue, the group is making the appeal again so that Muslim Ummah (nation), which constitute a greater population in the country, will reap the dividend of democracy.”

Muslims worldwide celebrate the first of Muharram (first month of the Arabic calendar) to commemorate the migration of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) from Makkah to Medina 1426 years ago.

Onisarotu, in the statement, enjoined Muslims to use the occasion to praise Allah for his mercies and reflect on how far they have been able to serve Allah and humanity as an individual and a nation, according to This Day Online.

“We should thank Allah for saving us from the tragedies that engulfed the world, in particular, we should remember our brothers and sisters who lost their lives in various auto crashes in Nigeria, the Tsunami disaster and the recent flood disaster in Saudi Arabia,” he added.

“We pray to Allah to reward the departed ones with Janat AL-Firdaus and give their families the fortitude to bear the loss, we should remember that Allah sparing our lives is not due to our own making but the grace of Allah.”

The AUD was founded on December 21, 1923 in Lagos Island with less than ten members, according to the group’s Web site.

After some years, due to expansion and members strength, the association started to have branches within Lagos State and later in most states of the Nigerian Federation and overseas.

One of the important branches of the AUD is the Festac branch, inaugurated in 1990 at the present day site of the AUD mosque in Festac Town under the pioneer chairmanship of Alhaji Chief M. I. Lawal, according to the Web site.

The branch has since been nick-named the action branch by other branches and the youths of the branch also emerge tops in all State and National events.  

Nigeria's population of 130 million is split roughly equally between Muslims and Christians. More than 5,000 people have been killed in religious and political violence since 2000.