Sabina Higgins speech at Sisters of Faith for Peace celebrating the occasion of Eid-Ul-Adha
Tallaght Mosque, Dublin, Thursday 29th August 2019
Thank you all very much for the warm welcome I have received. I am delighted to be here this evening at the Tallaght Mosque to attend this special event to mark Eid-ul-Adha, one of the most significant of Islamic national holidays.
May I thank the Sisters of Faith for Peace and, in particular, Doris McCann, for the kind invitation to attend.
Religious festivals carry huge cultural weight and significance in almost all societies. Festivals like this one also give a sense of enjoyment, relaxation and offer the time needed to bond with family members whom we often do not see because of the busy lives we live today. They help bring awareness of the traditions and values that resonate with us as individuals and communities.
They reinforce values such as integrity, personal responsibility, and the value of being selfless, and they celebrate the things that really matter in life, bringing happiness to our lives, and strengthening our sense of community.
Tonight, I wish to pay a special tribute to a young man Azzam Raguragui, who died tragically on 10th May in an unprovoked attack in Dundrum, not far from where we are gathered this evening, and I wish to extend my deepest condolences to Azzam’s family and friends.
The mother of this young man, Hajeeba Elouaddaf, is one of the many volunteers at the Tallaght Mosque who has helped prepare this event this evening, and she has our admiration and thanks.
Since we were last speaking, the work of creating a Peaceful and Just World has become ever more urgent. Its vital that people of understanding ethics and commitment to human rights take on their responsibilities for promoting peace, justice, tolerance and cooperation. They can do this through cooperation for the UN sustainable development goals and climate justice, and combat the forces that through ignorance and greed are making our world more unstable and dangerous; A world more divided and more unequal as the rich get richer and the poor stay poor, and lower and middle classes get poorer, than they had become.
These negative forces through their ignorance and greed are actually putting life on the planet in danger as they refuse to recognise the interdependence of all life in nature, human, animate and inanimate and the steps that have to be taken to preserve the earth.
The targets of UN 17 sustainable development goals, including particularly the 5 that pertain to the emancipation of women and the 3 that deal directly with climate change must all be met if life on earth can be sustainable. The good thing is we now for the first time in history have agreed on a great common agenda, drawn up and agreed to by 200 countries of the world.
The shared views on all human rights approaches of the world, in the dignity of human kind, invited them to unite, to prioritise the attainment of these goals, and not let any differences of faith or culture hinder them. In this way understanding tolerance and cooperation will grow.
The 16th UN sustainable development goal is, Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions and the 17th is Cooperation for the goals.
Widespread knowledge and understanding of the goals would ensure that they give guidance at every level to the actions of government, Global, National and Local. They will have powerful influence on everybody in their responsibility in their everyday lives and give a sense of purpose, inclusion, solidarity and happiness.
I can assure the Srs of Faith for Peace that they will have my solidarity in any programmes they draw up to further the attainment of the goals.
Tonight, I want to wish you all well as we celebrate this Eid-ul-Adha festival, and I thank you once again for the kind invitation to attend.