Hands off Christmas, say religious leaders

[Woodmonkey]

Hands off Christmas, say religious leaders

Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims joined Britain's equality watchdog Monday in urging Britons to enjoy Christmas without worrying about offending non-Christians.

"It's time to stop being daft about Christmas. It's fine to celebrate and it's fine for Christ to be star of the show," said Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

"Let's stop being silly about a Christian Christmas," he said, referring to a tendency to play down the traditional celebrations of the birth of Christ for fear of offending minorities in multicultural Britain.

Suicide bombings by British Islamists in July 2005 which killed 52 people in London have prompted much soul-searching about religion and integration in Britain, a debate that has been echoed across Europe.

The threat of radical Islam, highlighted by the London attacks, prompted reflection about Britain's attitude to ethnic minorities and debate about whether closer integration was more important than promoting multiculturalism.

Phillips, reflecting on media reports of schools scrapping nativity plays and local councils celebrating "Winterval" instead of Christmas, feared there might an underlying agenda -- using "this great holiday to fuel community tension."

So he joined forces with leaders of minority faiths to put out a blunt message to the politically correct -- Leave Christmas alone.

"Hindus celebrate Christmas too. It's a great holiday for everyone living in Britain," said Anil Bhanot, general secretary of the UK Hindu Council.

Sikh spokesman Indarjit Singh said: "Every year I am asked 'Do I object to the celebration of Christmas?' It's an absurd question. As ever, my family and I will send out our Christmas cards to our Christian friends and others."

Their sentiments were echoed by British Muslim leaders, who were also forthright last week in condemning Sudan for jailing a British teacher for letting her pupils name a teddy bear Mohammad.

Muslim Council of Britain spokesman Shayk Ibrahim Mogra said "To suggest celebrating Christmas and having decorations offends Muslims is absurd. Why can't we have more nativity scenes in Britain?"

More than 70 percent of Britons -- some 41 million -- said they were Christians, according to figures from the 2001 census.

Muslims were the largest religious group after Christians -- at the time there were 1.6 million Muslims in Britain, while there were over half a million Hindus and Sikhs numbered just over a third of a million.

The Source

[Snowden]

Jesus is the second best loved "Prophet" in Islam, after all. And they do understand how we feel about Him.

I am so glad all these leaders, Muslim, Sihk and Hindu, have stepped forward like this. Maybe it will make people think just how asinine "political correctness" itself is. That's where all this started.

It could be that all the anger and denial about Christmas started with the atheists. I notice none of them have stepped forward with the common sense to make these statements.

And none in the US so far, of any other religions. I hope this will spread and do some real good. It should -- but will it?

A great find, Katie!

[Chrisj]

Many aspects of Christianity have come under attack from the PC brigade. Most people enjoy Christmas regardless of their religious belief, however the kill joys and self appointed experts on the feelings of our ethnic minorities feel compelled to protect the religious sensibilities of any religious group except Christianity.

The real root of the attempts to play down Christian festivals through out the year, not just at Christmas doesn't come from the non-Christian religions put from the armies of ethnic diversity co ordinators, equal opportunity enforcement officers, multi ethnic community directors, etc. etc. All these posts created by government to provide jobs for otherwise unemployable left leaning graduates who have to justify their jobs by constantly finding perceived slights against minority groups. I am convinced they do far more harm than good and create tensions over non issues rather than tackling the more important issues such as arranged marriages, honour killings and religious extremism.