Source: The Washington Post

By Abigail Hauslohner

It was late afternoon on Monday when the Great Falls family of five piled into their minivan and headed for the Virginia countryside and an experience that Mohamed Elsanousi and his wife, Hanane Elabbassi, hoped their children would carry with them forever.

They had gone to a huge Eid al-Adha prayer service at the Dulles Expo Center and then a lavish holiday brunch with friends, and now they were going to roll up their sleeves and reenact a centuries-old religious tradition — sacrificing a sheep in the way that Islam prescribes.

Past the horse farms, cornstalks and the occasional Trump sign they drove, and then, suddenly, there it was: the “Halal Farm” sign, with another one beside it that said “Eid Mubarak” — a blessed holiday — in hand-painted Arabic. Behind the farmhouse, near the gravelly road, there were dozens of cars, the smoke of a few barbecue picnics, a pen full of sheep and goats, and a wooden shed where one family at a time could lead their selected animal. With the help of the farmer and butchers, they would perform the rite that commemorates Ibrahim (also known as Abraham) following God’s command to sacrifice his own son, only to have God replace the boy with a ram at the last minute.

As the country’s Muslim population grows, so too do the opportunities for Muslims to establish new faith traditions, blending ancient rituals with the latest American ways. The observant now can opt to slaughter their sheep for the holiday on a growing roster of farms; they can purchase organic, grass-fed meat for their feast from a green halal grocer, send money to a charity that will hand out food to the poor in inner-city Baltimore or attend an LGBT holiday barbecue in New York.

For immigrants, the trip to the country to slaughter the animal is a means of establishing authenticity to heritage as they assimilate into suburbs and cities, send their kids to public schools and soccer camps, and go through the daily rituals of being American.

Elsanousi and Elabbassi’s brood is the embodiment of that hybridization. They’re a multi­racial, multilingual family with immigrant roots and a deep commitment to the melting pot.

Elsanousi grew up in Sudan; Elabbassi in Morocco. They met as students at Indiana University. He now runs a nonprofit group in the District that promotes interfaith peace-building around the world; she’s been the den leader of their 11-year-old son’s Cub Scout troop. At home they speak a mix of English and Arabic with their three American-born children; the Arabic, too, is a hybrid of the distinctive Sudanese and Moroccan dialects.

Jude Elsanousi, 4, with her parents, Mohamed Elsanousi and Hanane Elabbassi, takes some freshly grilled goat meat at the Shah Farm in Catlett, Va., during the Muslim holiday. (Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post)

Being part of a religious minority carries challenges; Eid is not a national holiday here, so parents and children often take just one day for a festival that can stretch to several in their homelands. But many say that status also inspires an appreciation of customs that can seem at risk of extinction after immigration.

“We took it for granted growing up,” Elabbassi said. Rituals here take special effort. “As Muslims in the West, I want them to build childhood memories that help them to identify as Muslim Americans.”

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