Are national (secular) holidays halal or haraam?

[Darth Ultor]

Without bringing in the politics, can, let's say, an American Muslim celebrate Thanksgiving or the Fourth of July? Both of them have no religion in them at all.

[EllyDicious]

Are you asking just Muslims?

As a non-Muslim I don't think celebrating any national / international day is haraam.
But I guess a Muslim would disagree with me.

[Darth Ultor]

I'm asking Muslims from their perspective.

[CosmicPathos]

Without bringing in the politics, can, let's say, an American Muslim celebrate Thanksgiving or the Fourth of July? Both of them have no religion in them at all.

A Muslim who believes and follows Allah and Quran cannot celebrate secular events. His religion is his way of life and that includes events for celebration. Since Thanksgiving is not a part of religion, its not allowed to celebrate them. Then there is a issue of "imitating the kufaar." A Muslim cannot imitate the kufaar.

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[glo]

We have had discussions on this before.

From what I remember the general consensus seemed to be that holidays of non-religious content seem to be okay.
But then, different Muslim will have different views on this and interpret things differently.

Especially Muslims who are members in a non-Muslim society or even family, might find it difficult to complete turn away from all holidays and celebrations on their culture and may have to find their own compromise ...

[//-Asif-\\]

Well according to Islam, there's really no holidays worthy of celebrating except for the two Eids. Holidays like Valentines Day, St. Patricks Day, Halloween etc. have roots in pagan religions and despite them being pretty secular nowadays they send out the wrong message and do not fall in line with Islamic practices (Valentines day encourages dating/romanticism/premarital relationships, Halloween gives people a reason to party, dress up and act foolish, St. Patrick's Day is just a designated day for people to get drunk off their rear ends).

Thanksgiving and The Fourth of July are technically not haram or halal per say but are not recommended to be celebrated because again "holidays" have to mean something. Designating one day out of the year to give thanks for all you have and spend time with family and good friends? Shouldn't these things be done often or everyday? Exactly. Fourth of July deals with Independence Day for Americans, again while its an important holiday and many countries call for their independence to be celebrated but this shows nationalism or a sense of pride for where one lives. Showing pride for where one lives is really not in accordance to Islam so it should just be treated like any other day.

Those are at least my two cents on the matter.

[islamirama]

There should be no celebration of national holidays. Do they not promote nationalism? In Islam there are only holidays/festivals and they are the two Eids (Eid Al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha), all other holidays/festivals are not part of islam whether they are celebrated in west or muslim countries.

If you study the history of the american holidays than you wouldn't be celebrating them either. The "harmless" thanksgiving is nothing more than a cold massacre. After the native americans saved the whites from a harsh winter, how did they give THANKS? they gave blankets infested with white man's disease to wipe out the natives. anyways,

Ruling on attending Easter celebrations.

[ardianto]

Without bringing in the politics, can, let's say, an American Muslim celebrate Thanksgiving or the Fourth of July? Both of them have no religion in them at all.

I don't know about celebrating Thanksgiving or U.S Independence day. But in Indonesia, we always celebrate Indonesian Independence Day, and there is no Indonesian Muslim scholars who say this celebration is haram.

[//-Asif-\\]

Yeah it's not haram out right, it's just not recommended to be celebrated.

[EllyDicious]

Muslims don't celebrate the New Year?