Sep 24 2015 : The Times of India (Mumbai)
Isha Jain & Ali Rizvi
Lucknow:
On Eid ul-Zuha this Friday , the 168-year-old Imambara Sibtainabad here will host an event that has no precedent in the city’s history: Shias and Sunnis jointly offering namaz in a symbolic gesture that seeks to purge their history of strife.
Shia and Sunni prayers on Eid have historically been held separately in Lucknow.Mohammad Haider and Atif Hanif, part of the core group behind the citizen-led initiative `Shoulder to Shoulder’, said the attempt was to find a common ground, and empha size the similarities between the two sects. The move is significant in light of sectarian strife within Islam, particularly in Iraq, Syria and Pakistan, where large-scale violence led by Islamic State against Shias and retaliatory aggression has killed tens of thousands of faithful in both sects.