BY ROBERT SPENCER
SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2021/12/merry-christmas-10;
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:
Merry Christmas to all those Christians who are celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ today.
One of the fundamental good ideas of Christianity is summed up in the most famous of New Testament passages: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that whoever believes in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) That is, despite all appearances to the contrary, God really does love the world. This love of God for the world, in the mystery of things, is expressed through the suffering of the cross, which is then followed by the resurrection. The Christians who are suffering persecution for their faith today in Nigeria, and Pakistan, and Iraq, and Egypt, and Iran, and other Muslim countries are walking the way of the cross, confident that God does indeed love the world and so will not leave them to carry the cross without eventually bringing them to the resurrection.
Neither they nor we, however, can afford to be quietist and simply to hope that one day their suffering will all be redeemed. It is up to us to call attention to their suffering and to try to move the conscience of the world to act to relieve their suffering now and prevent it from recurring in the future. This is an uphill battle because even as Islamic jihadists attack Christians with unremitting fury, we see the world, including Christian authorities in the West, yawning and remaining indifferent. Weak and cowardly Christian leaders say we must not talk about all this, for fear of “provoking” Muslims and harming a chimerical and fruitless (at best) Muslim/Christian “dialogue.” Those who dare anyway to speak out about the persecution of Christians that the persecutors justify by invoking the Qur’an and Sunnah are vilified, demonized, and silenced as “bigots” and “Islamophobes.” Even some Christians do this to their fellow Christians who speak unwelcome truths on these matters.
So here is something to remember this Christmas: if you are a free human being, whether or not you are Christian, those Christians who are being persecuted in the Islamic world are standing in your place. The jihadis would just as soon attack you as well, and will eventually if they get the chance. Remember that the Islamic jihadis have you on their list. You may not be a Christian. You may not be a Jew. You may not be a Hindu. You may not be a Buddhist. You may not wish to pay attention to the jihad at all. But jihad is universal and relentless. And you are on its list.
So this Christmas, may all of us whose conversion, subjugation, or death is envisioned by the adherents of Sharia stand together. Let us stand together as Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, secularists, what have you, and stand up against those who would kill us or subject us to institutionalized discrimination and harassment (at best) because they find our beliefs offensive.
For be assured: if we do not stand together, they will prevail. And if they prevail, then all the richest manifestations of the unfettered human spirit, from Hagia Sophia to the temple of mausoleums of Timbuktu, from the works of Socrates and Aristotle to those of Confucius and Moses Maimonides and Dante Alighieri and Winston Churchill and Oriana Fallaci, will be trampled into the mud, destroyed, exploded, ruined, effaced. We will all be the poorer. Our children will be the poorer.
It is time, more than ever, to fight for our freedom, and for our very lives.
Merry Christmas!
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Trump Says 'Everybody Loves Christmas,' Including Muslims, But an Imam Disagrees
BY ROBERT SPENCER
SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2021/12/25/trump-says-everybody-loves-christmas-including-muslims-but-an-imam-disagrees-n1544370;
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:
In an interview with Mike Huckabee last week, Donald Trump spoke about his efforts to get store clerks to say “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays,” and remarked: “Whether you’re Muslim, whether you’re Christian, whether you’re Jewish, everyone loves Christmas.” In a Friday sermon on December 17, however, a popular imam in Canada, Younus Kathrada, expressed a decidedly different view of how Muslims should view Christmas. Unfortunately, Kathrada is not an outlier.
Kathrada observed:
Yes, it’s Christmas season, so many people ask: “Why should I not congratulate the people on this occasion?” There is no such thing as an innocent congratulation. No! Would you congratulate a fornicator? Would you congratulate a murderer? Obviously not! Would you congratulate a pedophile? Obviously not! So then how can you congratulate people for insulting Allah? Where is your love for your creator, when you approve of people insulting Allah? It is a major sin, and it is disbelief. O Allah, give strength to Islam and the Muslims, humiliate the infidels and the polytheists, destroy the enemies of religion, annihilate the heretics and the atheists. O Allah, support those who wage jihad for your sake everywhere.
Last Christmas, Ahmad Kulab of the Department for Training of Preachers in Hamas’ Ministry of Religious Endowments, declared: “We are not allowed to congratulate the Christians on their holidays. Christians must [keep] the celebration of their holidays to their homes, their houses of worship, and their churches.”
Echoing Kathrada’s words, he added: “Are we supposed to congratulate the Christians for their denial of Allah?…This culture has entered our Muslim countries and erases Islamic identity and faith. It changes the behavior of our children and contaminates their immaculate faith. In addition, the Holy Quran encourages us to dissent against the dwellers of Hellfire, the Jews and the Christians.”
Even Santa was verboten:
Santa Claus is a witty and jolly personality who hands out sweets and presents in order to influence people. This image of Santa Claus constitutes an invasion of Muslim countries, because they want to ingrain the image of Santa Claus [among Muslim]. The character of Santa Claus glorifies prominent Christians, monks who used to propagate the Holy Trinity and Christianity among Roman youth, giving out presents, sweets, and so on….If [a Christian] says to me: “Happy holidays!,” I can reply with something general, and say: “May you be happy, too.” But I say that we do not even have to say this. Even if they congratulate us, we do not have to answer them. We can remain silent. That is better for us, in order to avoid falling into sin, as the Islamic scholars said.
Zakir Naik, an Islamic preacher, and apologist who is renowned among Muslims worldwide agreed: “When you are wishing Merry Christmas to them, you are agreeing that he is the son of God and that is Shirk [sin]. Because they believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God….Is saying Merry Christmas wrong? I am telling you it is wrong. It is 100% wrong according to me….If you don’t know what Christmas stands for and happen to wish someone, Allah may forgive you. If you drink alcohol, mistaking it for Pepsi, Allah may forgive you. But if you are doing it to build a relationship after knowing what Christmas stands for, you are building your place in Jahannam [Hell].” A Muslim cleric in Germany put it more succinctly: “Christmas is an insult to Allah!”
These teachings spread worldwide. Last Christmas in Indonesia, an Islamic preacher, Imam Syuhada Al Iskandar Binmadhi, circulated a poster attributing various natural disasters to the fact that some Indonesians were celebrating the Christian holy day: “Why are there so many natural disasters after Christmas?” Also last Christmas in France, a young Muslim named Nabil celebrated Christmas with his family and happily posted photos of the celebrations online. Soon after the photos went up, a classmate contacted Nabil and told him he was “shocked” that he had celebrated Christmas. His schoolmate added a threat: “I’ll show you what a real Arab is.”
The two agreed to meet to talk it over, but as Nabil was on his way, he was attacked and beaten by five men. They warned him not to go to the police or they would give him even worse. He went to the police anyway; at a hearing, his classmate explained his behavior in simple terms: “It is not Muslim to celebrate Christmas.”
Trump’s more generous vision of Muslims’ view of Christmas is unfortunately not shared by all too many Muslims worldwide. Christians in many Muslim countries are hoping that Christmas day will pass quietly, without violence from those who believe that the day is a manifestation of sin and thus angers Allah. We can only hope.
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Trump Christmas Is A Complete Joke