Duygu Guvenc/MCT
A man dressed as Father Christmas speaks with customers in a shopping mall in Ankara, Turkey. Althought Turkey is, officially, a secular country - meaning religion plays no role in the government - the population is 99 percent Muslim. Many Turks celebrate Christmas on December 31, not as a religious holiday but as a family holiday.
I actually became angry reading this article. Muslims celebrating Christmas is like Christians celebrating Eid with alcohol and a ham. I know that Turkey wants to become a member of the EU, but don't mortgage Islam to fit in. They say that it is not religious, and it is all about the presents and family. Adopting the religious holidays of non-believers, becoming an enabler for materialism, and the encouragement of scantly clad women gyrating before men is a recipe for problems. No matter how many articles are written or slight adjustments are made in the practices, I think that I can easily exhaust more than 72 excuses on this topic. Things like this is what makes American Muslims look at some Muslims from "Muslim" countries as a little suspect (although many of them consider us the same). What they claim doesn't match what is being openly practiced. We should all individually, try to reconcile the two.
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