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When money can buy some happiness

Bigger wallets enable Philippines Muslims to splurge in the UAE

For the Muslim community from the Philippines working in the UAE, celebrating Eid is a joyous event, partly thanks to an abundance of financial resources. Though the nearly 15,000-strong group comprises different tribes, the largest being the Maranaos, they celebrate Eid as a composite tribe.

The festival is associated with buying things. But in the Philippines people can’t buy all of these things due to the tight family budget. Abdullah Asgar, a 32-year-old engineer, has been living in Abu Dhabi for the past seven years. “In the Philippines, we have pot luck,” he says. “Each family or clan brings their home-made dishes to the mosque and after Eid prayers, we eat together in the mosque.”

The Eid meals at home or at relatives’ places create “salo-salo” — family bonding.

Despite the abundance in the UAE, he misses celebrating with the clan and the games played during the holiday. His wife and daughter are with him in the Capital and they will visit other tribe members working in other emirates. “We coordinate (for the get-togethers), discuss Islam and play traditional games,” Asgar says. “Since summer in the UAE is very hot, we go to the beach.”
Mitoon Medal from Marawi City in the Philippines has been working in Shajrah for seven years.

Medal feels Ramadan is observed much better in the UAE than in the Philippines, However, he misses the Eid celebration at home. “My wife, son and my niece are also here,” he says. “We celebrate Eid with all the traditional food that Muslim Filipinos prepare for the occasion. Yet, I miss our celebration in the Philippines where the Filipino tradition of respecting each other is accentuated at all our clan and Islamic gatherings.”

“Eid is a time for praying, greeting and fellowship,” says Noura Imam who, together with her husband Nadjer Sanayon and two daughters have been residing in Ajman for the past 13 years. A business woman, she owns a recruitment agency which brings domestic workers to the UAE.

During Eid, Imam prepares traditional Filipino Muslim food, including “dodol”, cooked with glutinous rice and durian fruit, macaroni salad, chicken adobo and sweets. To her, celebrating Eid in the UAE is much better because she can buy whatever she wants for her family and visiting relatives.

“In my place in North Cotabato, my family cannot celebrate Eid as much as we want to,” she says. “Money is limited. So even though we want to prepare more things, it cannot be done. We have to celebrate on a very tight budget.”

In her home town, she can have more fun being with her family, relatives and friends; in the UAE, on the other hand, though she has only a few relatives, she can still have fun because of the prevalent high technology.

Her girls can have a good time playing with their ipads and watching the television or visiting theme parks.

lily@khaleejtimes.com