Indonesian Muslims celebrate Eid al-Adha amid FMD outbreak
By NINIEK KARMINI
Associated Press
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A foot-and-mouth disease outbreak is disrupting ritual slaughter of animals to mark Eid al-Adha, one of the biggest holidays in the Islamic calendar. On Sunday, millions of Muslims across Indonesia were celebrating Eid al-Adha, known as the “Feast of Sacrifice.” It’s a joyous occasion, for which food is a hallmark where devout Muslims buy and slaughter the animals and share two-thirds of the meat with the poor. But this year, an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, an acute, highly contagious viral disease of cloven-footed animals that is sometimes transmitted to humans, has significantly dampened the typically booming holiday trade in goats, cows and sheep in Indonesia, the world’s largest populous Muslim country.
