Lakshadweep – a Muslim dominated Union Territory in India, witnessed a change when Friday was declared as a working day. However, it’s just not India that believes that Friday should not be the holiday. Even Islamic nations have now begun recognizing Friday as a working day. In a remarkable decision, the United Arab Emirates bid adieu to Friday holidays and became the first Islamic nation to switch to a Saturday-Sunday weekend.
A good-bye to Islamic Friday in UAE
The United Arab Emirates woke up witnessing its first-ever working Friday on which the employees and students were seen working and studying respectively. However, a few private firms stood by their weekend on Fridays and Saturdays while many switched to the Western-style weekend.
In order to deal with growing competition in international business from other Gulf countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, the UAE announced a holiday on Friday in December.
Government bodies and schools will now function for four-and-a-half days per week, as they will be closed at 12 pm on Fridays for a fixed prayer time of 1:15 pm.
“Employees of the federal government sector and local governments, with the exception of Sharjah in the UAE, for the first time in the history of the country, will work on Friday, for 4 and a half hours, from 7.30 in the morning until 12 noon, according to the implementation of the application of the new system of weekly work announced by the UAE government and entered into force,” Gulf Today reported.
According to an NDTV report, “Out of 195 businesses polled by human resources consultancy Mercer, only 23 percent were preparing to follow the four-and-a-half-day week, but more than half would switch to Saturday-Sunday weekends.”
A news agency AFP reported, “The weekly day of prayer has always been a free day in the UAE, which had previously observed a Thursday-Friday weekend until 2006.”
Gulf region shuns Islamists
Earlier in 2021, Saudi Arabia approved cinema halls and entertainment centres in Madinah al Munawwarah – the Prophet Muhammad’s final resting place.
Read more: Indian Muslims are protesting the opening of cinema halls in Saudi Arabia’s Medina
The Islamist organisation, Raza Academy in India, however, was fumed with the decision. In a press release, stated that “Saudi Arabia has lost its credentials as an Islamic state, and claimed that the state has opened cinema halls in Madina as a part of a conspiracy by Israel to induce western culture in the heart of Muslims.”
Read more: If Saudi Arabia can openly call TablighiJamaat ‘a gate for terrorism,’ what is stopping India?
Saudi Arabia, in December 2021, also recognized how atrocious Tablighi Jamaat actually is. Thus, it had banned Tablighi Jamaat referring to it as one of the gates of terrorism. The question now arises that if Saudi Arabia, where the prominent religion is Islam, can pile up the courage to call Tablighi Jamaat ‘a gate of terrorism’, why India has maintained silence over them despite their violent behaviour in the country during a global pandemic.
Well, the other Islamic nations need to learn from UAE and should bid adieu to ‘Islamic holiday’ Friday.