‘Christians’ spoiling Christmas for themselves

On Wednesday, 19 December, just a week before Christmas, I along with Muslims all over the world will be celebrating Eid-ul-Adha, the second major festival of the year for Muslims. These celebrations mark the period of Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca.

It’s December and the time of year when gloomy, cold days dominate. Most of us look forward to a long over due break from work, oh yes and its Christmas time as well.

Even though I can’t tolerate the short, dark and bitterly cold days, I like the festive mood that Christmas brings. I like the fact that towns and cities make an effort to brighten up the days with decorations and festive lights. Whilst I disagree with the commercialisation of Christmas and the frenzy of Christmas shoppers buying things at inflated prices, I like the mood most people are in at this time of the year.

Christmas and other Christian festivals also cause a sense of unease amongst many of us from other religions during these times.

Let me say at the outset that I have been here for over 20 years and having been educated at a Church school. I am one of less that 4% of Muslims living in the UK and less than 8% of the total non-Christian faith population. So to put things in context, more than 90% of those living here in the UK today are or potentially Christian. Whether they describe themselves as belonging to the Christian faith is another matter.

So how comes every year, Christians feel uneasy about celebrating their faith and festivals? How come they feel uncomfortable and fearful of offending people of other faiths? What gives rise to this state of mind and victim mentality? This unease makes me feel even more unease easy and angry than many Christians care imagine. Christmas decorations, wordings on Christmas cards, nativity plays have all been watered down in recent years due to the perception that they offend other faiths.

A national poll shows that four out of 5 primary schools have either changed or cancelled their annual nativity plays because they are worried about the adverse publicity and possible offence they may cause others. Whether I agree with the concept of the practice or not, I am deeply offended that Christians are cancelling this in my name. I don’t recall anyone asking my views before doing so.

Other stories in recent years include towns which have decided against putting up decorations, offices cancelling Christmas parties for fear of excluding people of other faiths, and Christmas cards written without the words ‘Christmas’.

To most people this is both baffling and absolutely mad. I was asked my views by various newspapers and radio stations about the perceived offence Christmas and other festivals causes Muslims. My response is the same as it has always been. Who has done the asking and why do people just accept this?
Most, if not all Muslims, could not care less. We are all aware that this is primarily a Christian country and Christmas is part and parcel of everything it does associated with their faith. Muslims appreciate the religious freedom we enjoy here and how we are able to celebrate and practice our faith freely and without offending too many people.

As usual, my office is decorated with tinsels and Christmas trees. I will exchange cards and gifts with colleagues and enjoy a much needed Christmas break. Yet I dread the headlines that often dominate the news at this time of the year. Decisions taken by no on knows quite who, about excluding various aspects of Christmas and Easter is swiftly followed by the negative press given to other faiths especially Muslims.

We are then left to defend our positions and offer our unreserved support for Christian festivals even though we may not have a view on it at all. It is a position that makes me feel at tremendous unease and I am angry at the majority of Christians for allowing this to happen.

Christians need to stand up for themselves. They have to stand up to the do-gooders who, through the use of government agencies and institutions are creating an atmosphere of unease amongst the faith communities and who are using minority faiths and communities to slowly water down the most important festival in the Christian calendar.

I have yet to hear any Muslims or people of any other faith to say that they are offended by Christmas decorations, cards or carols to the point that they want these things banned.

As a Muslim, I am just as worried as many Christians about the way the Christian faith is treated in the media and public life. As a faith, Christianity shares many of the teachings and values of Islam and Judaism, given the origins of the faiths. With Church attendances at an all time low, I fear the liberal do-gooders and those who wish to see faith and religion vanished from life in the UK and across the Western world, gaining momentum. They are the biggest threat to Christians and people of other faiths here today. If they continue to influence and dominate the agenda, soon, Christmas and Christianity will be a thing of the past. The danger for other faiths is that if ‘they’ are able to reduce Christianity to a mere mention in the annals of history in a country with over 50 million possible followers, the rest of us will find it increasingly harder to practice our faith.

As the leaders of the three Abrahamic faiths including the Pope acknowledged recently, the biggest threat to billions of people around the world is not nuclear war but the decline of faith and the belief in a superior being.

An agenda is at play to drive people away from seeking a sense of peace and harmony and taking their moral and spiritual guidance from the belief in a creator and life hear-after. People are being blinded by the messages that religion is the root of all of the world problems. ‘They’ advocate a completely new outlook, not one based on the values and principles taught by faith but to a system based on the pursuit of happiness through financial gain, selfish attitude and ‘just having a good time’.
It is time ‘they’ were identified and wherever found, confronted. Be they in our places of work or amongst our social circles, they have to be questioned and challenged. Just like the health and safety brigade, there is very little we can do or believe in, in the future if they get their way.

Christians need to stand up for themselves and stop the trivialisation of their faith. They have to protect those things they consider sacred and make it their moral and religious duty to protect them. The rest of us are right behind you, because the rest of us it seems understand the value faith plays in people’s lives.

Christians have to stand up to those who propagate the need for ‘Christianity to change with the times’, a coded message to mean discos at Church. Christians have to sand up and oppose those who support the use of Churches as wine bars and boozers because they are not being used.

Islam has thrived and continues to do so not because it has been changed to ‘fit with the times’. Islam considers itself to be relevant for all times. The moment we go into changing things to suit our needs and desires, it is no longer a divine message. I believe Christians are finding it difficult to identify the heart and soul of their faith because so much has been changed or being changed to suit the times.

It is extremely sad that Christmas has come to define everything about Christianity for one day in the year where churches are packed for midnight mass and then empty all year round. Even Christians admit that Christmas has become commercialised and an opportunity for people to do everything but focus on the true message and significance of the occasion.

I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous new year and if I have offended anyone in doing so, then let me know I’d like to know who you are.