Eid al-Fitr to Become a Dutch National Holiday?

Suikerfeest, the “sugar-feast”, is the Dutch euphemism for Eid al-Fitr. Tineke Huizinga, the Dutch Secretary of State, is considering making Suikerfeest a national holiday.

The Netherlands may have to surrender Easter Monday to make up for it, but who cares? It’s a post-Christian society, right?

According to Elsevier, as translated by our Flemish correspondent VH:

Huizinga: Suikerfeest a candidate for national holiday

Secretary of State Tineke Huizinga (ChristenUnie [Christian Union, Traffic Ministry]) can picture the end of Ramadan, the day when Muslims celebrate the Suikerfeest, becoming an additional national holiday. This is what Huizinga said tonight in the TV show of Knevel & Van den Brink.

For the Islamic Suikerfeest eventually to become a national holiday, Muslims must be a larger group in the Netherlands, the State Secretary said, because the Netherlands at present is still a predominantly Christian culture.

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With a possible introduction of the Suikerfeest as public holiday, according to Huizinga there needs to be an extra free day. She has no objection to giving up Easter Monday, for example.

Ramadan began on Monday. On Tuesday, Farid Aouled Lahcen wrote an article with an appeal to stop the heavily sponsored Ramadan festivals, because they demonstrate the Islamization of the Netherlands more than they do a successful integration policy.