Islamic Relief urges caution as restrictions are lifted a day before Eid

“As Muslims prepare to welcome the festival of Eid al-Adha, Islamic Relief UK is urging the community to put safety first. With the celebrations set to coincide with Freedom Day on 19 July, it is imperative we remain mindful of the daily increase in cases we are seeing.

We know that a lot of Muslim families live with elderly parents or grandparents so it is important we keep them in our thoughts when attending Eid celebrations throughout the week, especially if we are planning on attending larger-scale events, where there might be a higher chance of catching Covid.

For those attending prayer or community gatherings we ask you to adhere to the guidelines suggested by Muslim Council of Britain – this ideally means avoiding hugging, and wearing a mask where possible. For Mosques, we suggest updating risk assessments ahead of Eid prayer, considering the level of ventilation and paying special attention to crowd control.

This July, Islamic Relief UK will be distributing almost 5000 food packs to the UK’s most in need, making it our most ambitious Eid al-Adha distribution to date. We are also delivering essential food items across the world, including in countries like Indonesia, Tunisia and South Africa where COVID rates are rising. We will be observing strict Covid protocols with our Eid distributions, as we do with all our programmes.”