“This is a reminder that celebrating Christmas is not halal. Putting up a Christmas tree is not halal. Wishing people a happy Christmas or a merry Christmas is not halal,” a Muslim user said in a social media video before Christmas.
The reason for all this, the user explained, is due to what one prophet warned: “Whoever imitates a people, then he is one of them.”
Westerners would do well to heed the prophet’s warnings, it seems.
“Merry Christmas” became a bit of a culture war battle cry with those on the right after certain woke liberals encouraged the use of the more inclusive “Happy Holidays” during the month of December. And while obsessing over a salutation may sound a bit overwrought, it is undeniable that the quarrel started when people took aim at a Christian cultural tradition precisely because it is Christian.
The greeting “Happy Holidays" is meant to include other December holidays besides Christmas, including Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, or even to acknowledge the celebration of no holiday at all, as is most often the case for practicing Muslims. “Happy Holidays” is the tactical retreat of a culture which no longer sees itself as worth defending as explicitly, or even axiomatically, Christian.
Until very recently, America was a Christian nation, but not in the sense that the Jamestown colony was a Puritan settlement. Americans may or may not have been living in a Christian manner, or even going to church, and no doubt pastors had every reason to bemoan this two-faced version of Christianity. But a cultural Christianity is better than no Christianity at all. And when a nation abandons Christianity, the void left will eventually be filled by some other religious tenet, whether secularism, Islam, Judaism (Hanukkah), or wokism (Kwanzaa).
It is safe to say that the dominant religion in the U.S. right now is secularism. But religions such as Islam are vying to fill that spot. Organized religion is better at taking over a country anyway, and the Muslims have millennia of experience.
Right now, America is trying to imitate all people. With the phrase “Happy Holidays,” open-minded and well-meaning liberals are using a cop-out to cover all the groups they can in their December traditions. This will end badly. If the Islamic hatred of traditional Christian Christmas wins out, liberals will be shocked to find that the Muslims are even less tolerant than the Christians they loved to hate. Most of the backwoods hillbillies who still dare say “Merry Christmas” would never raid the homes of a Hanukkah-celebrating Jewish family. Many Muslims, however, wouldn’t hesitate.
So let’s keep saying “Merry Christmas” not “Happy Holidays" throughout these 12 days of Christmas. The fact that your “Merry Christmas” salutation to the hourly-paid coffee shop employee is most often returned with a “Happy Holidays” is a big deal. You aren’t a crazy conspiracy theorist for thinking something’s fishy when your country tries so hard to be all things to all religions. As the Muslim social media user himself said, you will become like those you try to emulate.
Sarah Wilder is a writer and commentator on culture and the family. Formerly a reporter at the Daily Caller, her work has been published in Chronicles Magazine, The Federalist, and The American Mind.
This culture article was made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal, a project of 1819 News. To comment on this article, please email [email protected]. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News.
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