there is no need to spilt iraq into 'sunni' and 'shia'.

in every country there are people who will celebrate eid on a different day to their neighbours.

in america - half of us celebrate it today and the other half tom.

it's not a 'sunni' 'shia' issue, so please do not make it into one.

Oh come on, it's a political split. Shia are following Iran, Sunnis doing the opposite. Just like Lebanon's grand mufti "saw" the moon on the same day as Saudi. And so did Britain's (Saudi-funded) central mosque.

Eid should be celebrated on the day after the full moon is seen in THAT country - not by what another friendly country says. It makes a mockery of eid for one neighbour to be fasting and the other to be partying.

I completely agree that in most cases this Sunni-Shia thing is imagined. It's a simple divide and rule tactic. It's an imposed identity. But that's for another post!

But in this case, I'm sorry to say there are two different Eids in Iraq. This is from AP:

"Sunnis and Shiites both celebrate Eid, but often begin the festival on different days. In the past, that difference has sometimes underlined tensions between the two sects. This year, in an effort to minimize those tensions, the largely Shiite government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki declared the days celebrated by both Sunnis and Shiite as national holidays."

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_10598421

so what day was eid for you then?

1 - 'Eid should be celebrated on the day after the full moon is seen in THAT country' - according to who..? you? Actually there are different scholars thay rather unsurprising say different things. It has be dependent on the sighting of the moon in THAT country, OR what saudi says. so i'm afraid you are mistaken.

2- Shia are not following Iran - i know a lot of shia who are celebrating eid today... so wrong again.

3- don't know what/who the 'AP' you referred to is.. but you shouldn't believe everything you read.

I think Iraq has suffered enough from this pointless divide.. lets not continue it by making claims which are baseless.

rather bad spelling grammar in my last post, maybe should of made use of the 'preview' option.

so my point no 1 again...

so what day was eid for you then?

1 - 'Eid should be celebrated on the day after the full moon is seen in THAT country' - according to who..? you?

Actually different scholars thay rather unsurprisingly refer to eid starting at different times.. there are some that suggest it is dependent on the sighting of the moon in THAT country, OR what saudi says.

people do either..so i'm afraid you are mistaken.

1 - "Actually different scholars thay rather unsurprisingly refer to eid starting at different times.. there are some that suggest it is dependent on the sighting of the moon in THAT country, OR what saudi says."

You know more than me then. It's sad to think that Saudi is the world's ultimate religious authority. I don't know anyone who believes that.

2 - "Shia are not following Iran - i know a lot of shia who are celebrating eid today" - The majority of southern Iraq was celebrating Eid on Wednesday. That's a fact, whether you like it or not. I'm sure some Iraqi Shia were celebrating on Tuesday - just like some Syrians were celebrating on Tuesday, but most weren't.

3- "don't know what/who the 'AP' you referred to is" - Associated Press, the biggest news agency working in Iraq.