FuturePAF
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I am not assuming your comment was directed at me, but the issue you raised is actually through a prism our culture or rather a school of thought in our culture has come up with a test as to what we should say and not say; Sufism Three Gates of Speech.
Before saying something you need to ask firstly, is it true? if true, then ask, is it kind? and if kind and true, is it necessary? While we too are happy to remember the birth of Prophet Esa radhiallahu anhu, and are happy at our neighbors and people we interact with commemorating his birth. We all believe in His virgin birth, but core issue, is saying Merry Christmas tantamount to accepting part of Christianity, which would open the door to more christian and actually secular beliefs. My Jewish neighbors don't do Christmas, but the liberal ones do the tree and gifts and Santa, and their kids get more and more secular generation after generation.
It is not about behavior being different in majority Muslim countries or majority non-Muslim countries, as our christian neighbors are free to worship as they deem fit, but for our culture to reconcile how we interact with our people's belief in a respectful and thoughtful way. Because the way other cultures celebrate their holidays will be visible to our people, and we need to not hide our heads and ignore it, because inaction is ceding the public culture to those that speak up, extreme traditional and extreme liberal/western thinking. the next holiday after this will be "Saint Valentines Day" aka commemorating a day to secret romance (a priest would marry people in secret, but now a days people just use it as a day to hookup) which is against our culture explicitly. Christmas is a much more clear case to learn to deal with and reconcile, by the time St. Valentine's day comes along, we have a framework to say giving greeting to our fellow countrymen on Christmas in such a way is our culture's way, and banning St. Valentine's is our culture's way with dealing with that. For example, if the Prime Minister does an Eid Greeting via TV and radio bi-annually, then it would be fine if he sent out a Holiday Greeting to our Christian citizens, per Quaid e Azam's wish for a nation where all can practice their faith peacefully. Equally a Christian government official could send out a Holiday greeting during our Eid celebrations, and say Merry Christmas, if he chose to. But our culture needs to decide this and not just fall on traditionalism for its own sake, but proactively confront issues before other do it on their own.
To be Explicitly Clear, Christians our citizens and they are part of our Culture. Hindus our citizens and they are also a part of our culture. The Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Salam lived with People of the book; Jews and Polytheists. We Should Learn from His Example.
(not trying to be a Debbie Downer, just wanted to serious address the issue)
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