Ethelred Unraed's Journal: Leave Christmas alone, say Muslims

Leave Christmas alone, say Muslims

Muslim leaders joined their Christian counterparts yesterday to launch a powerful attack on politicians and town halls that play down Christmas.

They warned that attempts to remove religion from the festival were fuelling Right-wing extremism.

A number of town halls have tried to excise references to Christianity from Christmas, in one case by renaming their municipal celebrations "Winterval".

They have often justified their actions by saying Britain is now a multi-faith society and they are anxious to avoid offending minority groups.

But the Muslim leaders said they honoured Christmas and that local authorities were playing into the hands of extremists who were able to blame Muslim communities for undermining Britain's Christian culture.

The unprecedented broadside was delivered by the Christian Muslim Forum, which was launched this year by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, with the support of Tony Blair.

The forum's reaction reflects growing anger among Christians and other faiths about the efforts of secularists to push religion to the margins of public life.

In 1998 Birmingham renamed its celebrations "Winterval", and in 2001 Luton described its Christmas lights as "luminos", taken from Harry Potter.

Last week, the Church of England criticised Royal Mail for issuing Christmas stamps with no Christian theme.

The forum, which draws half its membership from senior members of the Muslim community, said in a statement that "as Muslims and Christians together" it was "wholeheartedly committed" to the religious recognition of Christian festivals.

"Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus and we wish this significant part of the Christian heritage of this country to remain an acknowledged part of national life.

"The desire to secularise religious festivals is offensive to both of our communities."

The statement, signed by the forum's chairman, the Bishop of Bolton, the Rt Rev David Gillett, and its vice-chairman, Dr Ataullah Siddiqui, urged society to promote religious freedom.

"Those who use the fact of religious pluralism as an excuse to de-Christianise British society unthinkingly become recruiting agents for the extreme Right. They provoke antagonism towards Muslims and others by foisting on them an anti-Christian agenda they do not hold."

Bishop Gillett said in a separate article that it was strange that so many public bodies were nervous or dismissive about Christmas when 72 per cent of Britons described themselves as Christian in the 2001 Census.

Any repetition by councils to rename Christmas so as not to offend other faith communities will "backfire badly" on the Muslim community, he said. "Sadly it is they who get the blame -- and for something they are not saying."

Reminds me of the new Coke cans

[winkydink]

They say Holidays 2006 or somesuch and then feature a picture of Santa. Can you please tell me what other holiday besides Christmas has a Santa?

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[Ethelred Unraed]

Heh.

The thing is, Coke has a history of being pretty favorable towards Jews (think kosher Coke). So you'd understand them wanting to not be too Christian-centric...but then again, they've had ad campaigns with Santa for decades, and Coke arguably helped build up the modern image of Santa through its marketing. So in a way you can kinda see the train wreck coming.

I'm rather baffled by it all myself: I'm not offended by anyone wishing me blessings for Ramadan or a happy Chanukah, and have yet to meet anyo

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[ellem]

I'm anti Kwanzaa. I don't buy into any holiday invented in the 60s.

I didn't hear about it until the 90s

[artifex2004]

I still have no idea what it's for, and I don't care, because none of my friends take it seriously, either. :)

I wish my Jewish friends Happy Hanukah, my Christian friends Merry Christmas, my lunatic friends soulful solstice, etc. I celebrate Christmas, but if someone wants to wish me a splendid Saturnalia, that's fine with me.
I DON'T wish strangers "Season's Greetings," though I may say happy holidays.

Personally, I like nativity scenes, but I think they belong in front of churches or the tree in my living r

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[TechnoLust]

Kwanzaa was invented to re-segregate black people. I never understood why someone would do something to undermine the hard work of so many people. So many gave their time, talents, and sometimes lives to bring to fruition the idea that we're all the same, and the color of our skin doesn't matter. And then some yokel says, "Hey! Christmas is for whitey. We need to invent a religion that's separates us from them. Yeah, because things were SOOO good when we were separate.

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[Ethelred Unraed]

Ah, but what about ones invented in the 90s? [festivusweb.com]

Cheers,

Ethelred

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[turg]

The guy in the Coke ads has been their holiday mascot since before this was the generally-accepted image of what Santa looks like. And the influence of Coke's Santa ads has a great deal to do with the endurance and ubiquity of Santa's association with "the holidays." The Coke ads have always said "The Holidays" from the begining (1930-something) -- and have never said the word "Christmas" (AFAICT, that is -- I haven't seen every single one :-)

Screw em all!

[TheConfusedOne]

FESTIVUS or nothing!!! (Unless the great Flying Spaghetti Monster wants to propose an alternative to the pagan new year tradition...)

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[Ethelred Unraed]

Heh. Just got a picture in my mind of a trigger-happy local ACLU trying to sue a town for putting up a Festivus display, then imploding in a singularity when they realize it's non-religious.

Cheers,

Ethelred