Celebrating Christmas Confidently

Every year there are stories of Christmas being 'banned', and this year is no different ...

Already there have been a few stories attracting the familiar words 'political correctness gone mad!' In fact the only people who ever succeeded in banning Christmas, but only briefly, were the Puritans. We take this opportunity to share some other little-known facts about Christmas, Christians and Muslims:

• 'Winterval' was not intended as a replacement for Christmas
• Christians celebrating Christmas do not offend people of other faiths
• Many, many Muslims in this country were educated at Christian (mostly Church of England) schools in this country or elsewhere
• Muslims are baffled when they read and hear that Christmas is being “banned” and replaced with something else to avoid offending Muslims
• Both Christians and Muslims in the UK are concerned that a key religious festival is overly commercialised

Because of the level of concern about the place of Christmas in our secular, and also multi-faith, society the Christian Muslim Forum produced this 'Christmas statement' in 2006. The statement also includes an open letter from Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra, President of the Forum and Chair of the Masjid (mosque) and Community Affairs committee of the Muslim Council of Britain.

On behalf of the Christian Muslim Forum I wish a Merry Christmas to all those who will be celebrating it, and peace to all who are commemorating the martyrdom of Imam Hussain during Ashura and Muharram.

Julian Bond
Director
Christian Muslim Forum