Matarr,

My ex-husband's family are all Christians. He is the only muslim in the
family, and he converted before we got married. We have 4 children, and they
interact and love his relatives. They visit with their grandparents and the
extended family.

 His parents send a check at christmastime to all the grandkids, ours
included.The family  makes a big deal of Christmas. We have a good
relationship with them, and my ex-mom-in law still calls to chat.
Howevwer, this family knows that we are muslims, and we do not celebrate
Xmas, and all of them have always respected that. The rest of the family does
not  send us gifts because they know we do not celebrate the holiday, but the
grandparents wanted to give our kids something at Xmas and asked if they
could do that, and we said if this makes them happy, then no problem.

When people have forwarded anything that says non-muslims are non believers,
it is not something that was coined deliberately to make anyone feel bad. It
is the exact words that the Qur'an uses.

On my part, I am telling people what Islam is, and i relay what is in the
Qur'an. The same Qur'an also says that the directives to the muslims is
clear, and that  even they are free to accept it and practice it as stated,
or they are free not to do so. This is very clear, so there is no need for
anyone to feel threatened because what is said in the Qur'an is relayed, and
it is in poor taste for some of us to try to get some milage out of this
issue.
Life gets complicated sometimes, and people  practice many things that are
contrary to what the scriptures tell us we must do, and this is not just
unique to Muslims. Just because one does not live your life according to what
the scriptures say does not mean that how they live their life is right and
the scriptures are wrong, or that they have to try to force everyone to
conform to their way of life, and neither can those who want to follow the
way of life laid out by the  religious laws force these people to  adopt
their's. It is all a matter of choice, but it does not mean that one can
silence people just because what they relay makes you feel insecure, guilty,
angry, or whatever feeling it invokes. People need to be ready to just accept
their choices, and live with it, Period.
My personal view is that Malamin Johnson sent that posting to the list as
information to the muslims on ths list concerning the celebration of
non-muslim holidays, and maybe I am wrong about that, but that is how i saw
it. The words were right out of the Qur'an, and that's it. One can take it or
leave it, no compulsion there.

The point is missed when it comes to Islam and the Qur'an> As far as those of
us who believe are concerned, it si the word of God, and so if one wants ot
debate, reform or change it, you need to get in touch with the man upstairs
as the rest of us definitley cannot help.
We just practice the deen and try to teach others about it, so they are
educated about it and this avoids misconceptions such as are prevalent these
days. This does not constitute the direction of hatred towards anyone, or
that one should not be nice to your neighbours or interact with other people.
If those who are quick to jump on that bandwagon for their own purpose just
stop to think about it, and learn about the religion, then there is no
possibility of arriving at this conclusion, but more often that not, what we
have is the same panic that has gripped the majority of people who know
nothing about Islam, do not really want to learn, but have a lot of senseless
commentary that bespeaks their ignorance, even if they were born into this
religion.
Enough of this insecurity.

No hard feeling Matarr, and I am not directing all of this personally at you,
but just commenting in general.

Jabou Joh

Jabou Joh

In a message dated 1/7/2002 8:11:12 AM Central Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:


>
> Sister Jabou,
> I think that is what makes it difficult. When i came to Norway i was
> married
> to a Norwegian who was a christian and We have 2 beautiful girls together
> Neneh and Mariama. She participates fully whenever we our Islamic
> activities
> even though she was not a muslim.
> When my girls were born we had a naming ceremony as we are used to back
> home. When it is christmas we normally have a christmas tree at home and we
> exchange gifts. My in laws were christians, they give me and my family
> christmas presents and my children give them presents as well.
> They are their grandparents despite the fact that they are not muslims.
> This is the very thing i was trying to explain when i gave the Ustass as an
> example in my first posting on this issue but unfortunately everything was
> focused on Pork eating and alcohol drinking. The Ustass received gifts such
> as money etc. from a christian teacher at school but when this particular
> teacher lost his father the Ustass refused to offer prayers for him and his
> reason was that he was a non-muslim. I was trying to portray the double
> standard of the Ustass.
> We go The Gambia, most of the people drinking alcohol are are muslims but
> still we associates with them in every way possible.
> As musa Famara said "Matarr this is a very sensitive issue and it seems
> your
> islamic knowledge is very limited" but the fact is that i dont need a wide
> range of islamic knowledge to be able to reason outor see things.
> Sister Jabou with all due respect this is just a comment i have to make
>
> May God bless you and your family
>
> Matarr
>
>

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