The Associated Press

SMITHFIELD, N.C. - Hundreds of Muslim families don’t have a place to perform a religious ceremony to start the three-day Islamic holiday, Eid al-Adha.A Johnston County judge refused Tuesday to lift a ban on a farmer to host a mass slaughter of lambs on Wednesday, the first day of a holiday also known as the Festival of Sacrifice.

Judge Tom Lock barred the slaughter at a farm owned by Eddie Rowe at the request of state agriculture officials who said the farm does not have proper sanitary facilities.

Several Muslim families from Wake and Johnston counties asked the judge use the U.S. Constitution to eliminate a ban they said hinders religious practices.

Lock said the ban doesn’t prevent the free exercise of religion because the families are allowed to slaughter their own lambs at a state-licensed facility.

Information from: The News & Observer, http://www.newsobserver.com

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Sofian Abdelaziz Zakkout