Ditch Black Friday, top Kazakh cleric urges local businesses

ALMATY (Reuters) – Kazakhstan’s top Muslim cleric urged local businesses to stop using the Black Friday tag for their end-of-November sale campaigns, a move that he said would be appreciated by followers of the Central Asian nation’s dominant faith.

“Since Friday is the holy day for the Muslim community, renaming Black Friday to Generous Friday would be paying due respect to our people, most of whom follow Islamic traditions,” Supreme Mufti Nauryzbai Kazhy Taganuly said in an address published by the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Kazakhstan.

The term, which has originated in the United States and refers to the Friday following Thanksgiving, has become popular among Kazakh retailers, even though the former Soviet republic marks no holidays near that date.

(Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Alison Williams)