Global Post: Patrick Winn.
Is “Merry Christmas” forbidden in Muslim-majority Indonesia?
Another Christmas season, another year of hand wringing for Muslim-majority Indonesia‘s arbiters of piety.
As the Jakarta Globe reports, Indonesia’s top Islamic rule-making body (the Indonesia Ulema Council) is again warning Muslims toforego all Christmas “rituals”.
In other words, don’t plop your kid down on Santa’s lap at the mall. And don’t even say “Merry Christmas,” the clerics warn — it’s a slippery slope towards religious impurity.
Categories: Asia, Extremism, Indonesia, Intolerance
Well, … personally I do not support that for instance in Bangkok, Thailand, a country with less than 5% Christians, we had to listen to Christmas songs in all shopping malls for the whole month of December. OK, we can say ‘Merry Christmas’ to our Christian friends, but saying it to non-Christian friends is a bit too much of commercial copy-cat-iying’ … just a thought.