It is no secret that Christmas is one of my favourite festivals. Nothing extraordinary, right? No. At least it should not be so, but my experiences for the past couple of days suggest otherwise.
You may wonder how me being fond of a festival is roped in with religious intolerance. I will get to that in time, but before I do, I have to give you a little background.
As I have mentioned on my instagram, I got myself a mini Christmas Tree to put on my desk at work. I was so excited as I decorated it with tiny ornaments and put tiny fake gifts underneath it (you see it was my first ever Christmas Tree!) and finished it all with putting fairy lights on it.
Now is the time I tell you how it relates to intolerance (in my opinion).
A few colleagues have been ridiculing me for having put up a Christmas Tree on my desk. Why, you ask? The simple reason is, I am not a Christian. I am a Muslim. In fact, no one on my floor / department is a Christian.
Now having put something up in my space should not be anybody’s business but that is not the kind of society that we live in. Following is what I have been hearing since a couple of days.
- From today, your name is Hina ______ (random Christian surnames)
- Hina has become very modern
- Because it is your festival, you should being Hot Cross Buns for us all
- Soon, she will make a shrine in here
- When are you putting up a cross here?
I have been telling them all that one does not have to be a Christian to celebrate Christmas. It is a festival that celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ who I may add is one of our prophets; albeit one that we do not follow per se but one that we still believe in. How can celebrating his birthday be wrong?
one that we do not follow per se but one that we still believe in. How can celebrating his birthday be wrong?
As for the Christmas Tree, the idea isn’t even born out of Christianity. People would put up Trees in winters to ready themselves to welcome and celebrate Spring!
But no, people ridicule what they cannot fit in what the believe the world should be like!
As a Muslim, I have no problem celebrating Christmas or wishing others a Merry Christmas.
I will end with, just do what makes you happy and let people be jealous. You are not doing anything wrong or wrong by anyone.
Merry Christmas!
Lair of a Wordsmith © 
My argument would be, if you don’t have problem in celebrating Prophet Muhammad (saw) Birthday why there’s a problem in celebrating Prophet Isa (AS) birth.
True that
People as always judging and ridiculing. Even I love christmas. And its no problem celebrating the birth of other prophet. Why are people like this
I am loving your christmas tree❤
Thank you 💖
Go ahead and celebrate/worship what you truly love/feel. Don’t pay attention to such fanatics. They want you to feel apologetic about what you do. If you instead show happiness/smile on your face, they won’t ridicule you anymore.
True that. Thanks for the support 🙂
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