Mosque warns against saying Merry Christmas
http://www.hvk.org/articles/1202/291.html
Salutation like congratulating murderer
A group of Toronto Muslims reacted with outrage yesterday after hearing that an Etobicoke mosque issued a warning to followers that wishing someone a Merry Christmas is like congratulating a murderer.
The notice went out on the Khalid Bin Al-Walid mosque's Internet message service on Christmas day, stating that congratulating non-Muslims on their festivals "is like congratulating someone for drinking wine, or murdering someone or having illicit sexual relations and so on."
Whoever wishes someone a Merry Christmas, it goes on to say, "exposes himself to the wrath and anger of Allaah." The members of the Muslim Canadian Congress, a group formed six months ago to promote a liberal and pluralistic Islam in Canada, denounced the message as shameful hate-mongering.
"These are the kind of bigots we don't need in our religion and we don't need in Canada," said Syed Sohail Raza, a founding member of the group who fled Pakistan for Canada in 1989 to escape religious persecution. "Although Canada is a democratic society, there is no room for hate-mongering and inciting people against other faiths. If I can't wish you a Merry Christmas on your most holy day, what kind of relationship am I going to form with co- workers and neighbours and with schoolchildren? This is the kind of thing that has to stop."
The mosque, located near Kipling Ave. and Highway 401, was filled with primarily Somali Canadian worshippers yesterday for Friday prayers. In between calls to worship, mosque director Abukar Sheikh Hussein said the e- mail had been sent out by a junior employee without his approval. "This is not our position," agreed Said Omar, one of the mosque's board members who was called in to speak with a Star reporter. "We didn't give permission to the person who sent this e-mail. We love the prophet Issa (Jesus Christ) more than anyone else because he is one of the prophets of Allah." However, two regular worshippers at the mosque, brought in to speak to the reporter, both agreed with the main message.
"For myself, it's a sin exactly," said Salah Suad, an immigrant from Iraq. Wishing someone a merry Christmas goes against what the prophet Mohammed advised.
"Do not share any celebration with non-Muslims, for if you share with them on the Day of Judgment, you'll be with them too."
Pointing out that freedom of religion is a fundamental tenet of the Canadian Constitution, fellow worshipper Alfaaz Karamat added: "This is no one else's concern. This is our belief and we have the right to practise in that way." The e-mail message explains that greeting the kuffaar (non-believer) on Christmas is haraam (forbidden) because "imitating them in some of their festivals implies that one is pleased with their false beliefs and practices and gives them the hope that they may have the opportunity to humiliate and mislead the weak."
It instructs its readers to stop greeting colleagues on Christmas with "Merry Christmas" and to avoid Christmas parties. "If they greet us on the occasion of their festivals, we should not respond, because these are not our festivals and because they are not festivals which are acceptable to Allaah," the message states.
Hussein said he could not refute the e-mail's points in particular, as he had decided not to read it. Reading it, he said, would be to condone it. "I don't say honestly `Merry Christmas.' Maybe I say `Happy holidays,'" he said. "I don't say it because it might be a sin. Historically, it's not right. The prophet Issa was not born on Dec. 25."
Muslim Canadian Congress founding member Tarek Fatah said the e-mailed message contradicted the spirit of pluralism espoused in the Qu'ran. "The Qu'ran very specifically states ? chapter 109, line 6 ? `To you, your religion, to me mine,'" said Fatah, host of the CTS-TV program The Muslim Chronicle. "This is the hijacking of my religion."
Fatah put the interpretation down to more proof that the radical Wahhabi movement, a sect that originated in the 18th century and is now the state- sanctioned doctrine of Saudi Arabia, has taken root in Toronto.
"I've been hearing this kind of thing in more and more mosques," he said.
"People started believing the Wahhabi interpretation of Islam is the only valid interpretation."
Fellow Muslim Canadian Congress member Zuhair Kashmeri summoned other Canadian Muslims to respond to the e-mail message by purposefully wishing as many people "Merry Christmas" as possible.