Christmas debate on Facebook: is it allowed or forbidden to wish Merry Christmas

By David Khoirul

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

On Facebook, I debate a lot with radical and fundamentalist people who think it is forbidden to wish Merry Christmas, or "Selamat Natal" in Indonesian. These people are dumb. Whenever I ask them, "Why is it haram for muslims in Indonesia to wish Christians Merry Christmas," they respond with cliché, the same answer that I hear hundreds times: "Because you follow their style," or "because you agree that the birth of Jesus is December 25."
This morning, again, as I published a Facebook post on my timeline, my friends add comments quickly and enthusiastically. Some see it as jokes, others as serious fatwa as if it was said by a scholar. And the others think it as an insult. I debated with one of Facebook users named Cynthia, who argues that it is haram and blames the content of my post. I said to her that this is my right to voice my thought; she can agree or disagree.

I said on Facebook, "If it is haram to wish Merry Christmas, then it is forbidden to have a holiday on December 25, and you have to say istighfar (ask for God's forgiveness) more intensively than those who wish Merry Christmas." A user named Hafid says that it is our right to wish or not on Christmas. "The most important thing is we have our own faith," he said.

You know, this kind of debates will never end because even the obvious sarcasm cannot be seen by those radical and fundamental Muslims. So it's better for me to have spicy and delicious Indonesian food called pecel lele with hot sambal rather than talking to them.

Tag : diary