{"id":1953,"date":"2004-12-21T23:41:00","date_gmt":"2004-12-22T04:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/?p=1953"},"modified":"2004-12-21T23:41:00","modified_gmt":"2004-12-22T04:41:00","slug":"despite_popular_belief_islams_not_the_grinch_that_stole_christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/12\/despite_popular_belief_islams_not_the_grinch_that_stole_christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Religion vs. secularism: Despite popular belief, Islam&#8217;s not the Grinch that stole Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><table cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">\n<tr>\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.altmuslim.com\/ee_images\/christmas_nativity.jpg\" border=\"0\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"right\">\n<div class=\"caption\">I saw Mommy dissing Santa Claus<\/div>\n<p><\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>\u201cMerry Christmas\u201d has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com%2Fstory%2F158%2Fstory_15819_2.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">given way<\/a> to \u201cHappy Holidays\u201d or \u201cSeasons Greetings\u201d, and many Christians aren\u2019t too happy about Christmas\u2019 increasing secularization.  They cite the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com%2Fnews%2Fnation%2F2004-12-21-holidaysuit_x.htm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">banning<\/a> of public nativity displays, <a href=\"http:\/\/headlines.agapepress.org%2Farchive%2F12%2F212004h.asp\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">curtailing<\/a> of Christmas carols with religious themes, and even the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bringbackchristmas.org%2F\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">banning<\/a> of the \u201cC-word\u201d in schools.     And some of the maddest ones are those who <a href=\"http:\/\/www.americandaily.com%2Farticle%2F6088\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">blame<\/a> \u201cmilitant Muslims\u201d, among others, for the watering down of the holiday.  (Truth is, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.zwire.com%2Fsite%2Fnews.cfm%3FBRD%3D1675%26dept_id%3D18177%26newsid%3D13586818%26PAG%3D461%26rfi%3D9\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">commercialism<\/a> is more to blame than anything else, but that\u2019s another story.)  While secularists <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com%2Fnews%2Fopinion%2Fcommentary%2Fla-oe-lawrence19dec19%2C1%2C7904886.story%3Fcoll%3Dla-news-comment-opinions\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">get<\/a> hammered most in this anti-PC backlash, Muslims for some reason are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.campusreportonline.net%2Fmain%2Farticles.php%3Fid%3D236\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">getting<\/a> some <a href=\"http:\/\/www.americandaily.com%2Farticle%2F5754\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">blame<\/a> for this, despite any evidence that they have done anything collectively or individually.  It\u2019s easy, when Muslims are the target <i>du jour<\/i>, to add one more reason to hate them.  \u201cHate crimes against Christianity!\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/www.startribune.com%2Fstories%2F561%2F5149490.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">fumes<\/a> one columnist.  \u201cIf the Muslims don\u2019t like it, let them go to a Muslim country!\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bushcountry.org%2Fnews%2Fcolumnists%2FGrant-Joseph%2Fc_121104_joseph_swank_Christmas.htm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">writes<\/a> another.  In fact, Muslims (and Jews and others) are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.news.com.au%2Fcommon%2Fstory_page%2F0%2C4057%2C11755810%25255E2862%2C00.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">publicly criticizing<\/a> the oversensitivity going on in their names.  \u201cDenying the Christianity in Christmas\u2026 helps no one,\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theaustralian.news.com.au%2Fcommon%2Fstory_page%2F0%2C5744%2C11608553%25255E7583%2C00.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">wrote<\/a> Waleed Aly of the Islamic Council of Victoria, Australia, \u201cThis is not multiculturalism. It is anti-culturalism.\u201d  Inayat Bungawala, a spokesperson for the Muslim Council of Britain, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.iol.co.za%2Findex.php%3Fset_id%3D1%26click_id%3D3%26art_id%3Dvn20041221120549749C359143\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">agreed<\/a>.  \u201cActually, we would welcome Christmas having more a Christian content because it is more now a shopping festival.\u201d  And Muslims are even <a href=\"http:\/\/www.islamicanews.com%2Fdisplayarticle77.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">celebrating<\/a> Christmas in their <a href=\"http:\/\/www.muslimchristmas.com\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">own ways<\/a>.  \u201cWe in the Muslim community express our love to this blessed baby and Messiah,\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/www.detnews.com%2F2004%2Feditorial%2F0412%2F19%2FD08-36215.htm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">writes<\/a> Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi of the Islamic House of Worship in Dearborn Heights, \u201cand open our hearts to the Christian community and say \u201cMerry Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><i><\/i><\/p>\n<p>Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.\n<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Political correctness has slowly secularized Christmas over the years, but should religious minorities &#8211; including Muslims &#8211; get the blame?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":530,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-briefings"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Religion vs. secularism: Despite popular belief, Islam&#8217;s not the Grinch that stole Christmas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Political correctness has slowly secularized Christmas over the years, but should religious minorities - including Muslims - get the blame?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/12\/despite_popular_belief_islams_not_the_grinch_that_stole_christmas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Religion vs. secularism: Despite popular belief, Islam&#8217;s not the Grinch that stole Christmas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Political correctness has slowly secularized Christmas over the years, but should religious minorities - including Muslims - get the blame?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/12\/despite_popular_belief_islams_not_the_grinch_that_stole_christmas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"altmuslim\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2004-12-22T04:41:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.altmuslim.com\/ee_images\/christmas_nativity.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shahed Amanullah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shahed Amanullah\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/12\/despite_popular_belief_islams_not_the_grinch_that_stole_christmas\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/12\/despite_popular_belief_islams_not_the_grinch_that_stole_christmas\/\",\"name\":\"Religion vs. secularism: Despite popular belief, Islam&#8217;s not the Grinch that stole Christmas\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2004-12-22T04:41:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2004-12-22T04:41:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/0e0efbb645cc461c721083358f82f945\"},\"description\":\"Political correctness has slowly secularized Christmas over the years, but should religious minorities - including Muslims - get the blame?\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/12\/despite_popular_belief_islams_not_the_grinch_that_stole_christmas\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/12\/despite_popular_belief_islams_not_the_grinch_that_stole_christmas\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/12\/despite_popular_belief_islams_not_the_grinch_that_stole_christmas\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Religion vs. secularism: Despite popular belief, Islam&#8217;s not the Grinch that stole Christmas\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/\",\"name\":\"altmuslim\",\"description\":\"Global perspectives on Muslim life, politics &amp; culture\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/0e0efbb645cc461c721083358f82f945\",\"name\":\"Shahed Amanullah\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6c9ebfb8c37dbc2e9865b291bbaeff08?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6c9ebfb8c37dbc2e9865b291bbaeff08?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Shahed Amanullah\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/author\/shahedamanullah\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Religion vs. secularism: Despite popular belief, Islam&#8217;s not the Grinch that stole Christmas","description":"Political correctness has slowly secularized Christmas over the years, but should religious minorities - including Muslims - get the blame?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/12\/despite_popular_belief_islams_not_the_grinch_that_stole_christmas\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Religion vs. secularism: Despite popular belief, Islam&#8217;s not the Grinch that stole Christmas","og_description":"Political correctness has slowly secularized Christmas over the years, but should religious minorities - including Muslims - get the blame?","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/12\/despite_popular_belief_islams_not_the_grinch_that_stole_christmas\/","og_site_name":"altmuslim","article_published_time":"2004-12-22T04:41:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.altmuslim.com\/ee_images\/christmas_nativity.jpg"}],"author":"Shahed Amanullah","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Shahed Amanullah","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/12\/despite_popular_belief_islams_not_the_grinch_that_stole_christmas\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/12\/despite_popular_belief_islams_not_the_grinch_that_stole_christmas\/","name":"Religion vs. secularism: Despite popular belief, Islam&#8217;s not the Grinch that stole Christmas","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#website"},"datePublished":"2004-12-22T04:41:00+00:00","dateModified":"2004-12-22T04:41:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/0e0efbb645cc461c721083358f82f945"},"description":"Political correctness has slowly secularized Christmas over the years, but should religious minorities - including Muslims - get the blame?","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/12\/despite_popular_belief_islams_not_the_grinch_that_stole_christmas\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/12\/despite_popular_belief_islams_not_the_grinch_that_stole_christmas\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/12\/despite_popular_belief_islams_not_the_grinch_that_stole_christmas\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Religion vs. secularism: Despite popular belief, Islam&#8217;s not the Grinch that stole Christmas"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/","name":"altmuslim","description":"Global perspectives on Muslim life, politics &amp; culture","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/0e0efbb645cc461c721083358f82f945","name":"Shahed Amanullah","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6c9ebfb8c37dbc2e9865b291bbaeff08?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6c9ebfb8c37dbc2e9865b291bbaeff08?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Shahed Amanullah"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/author\/shahedamanullah\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/530"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1953\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}