“With reference to a saying of the Holy Prophet, your Imam calls attention to the fact that Muslims are to contribute to the wholesomeness of Christian religious holiday festivals. An indication of the Muslim role in promoting respect for wholesome and sacred celebrations is found in the teaching of Prophet Muhammed, which prohibits arbitrary fasting during the holidays of people of the Book. The purpose serves to preserve and to promote solemn respect for G-d and for the sacred devotion of all people.”

My thoughts in that spirit, in my latest Florida Weekly commentary:

“We need no labels to reflect on traditions, values at Christmas“

The column’s here. See the entire digital edition here. Or keep reading:

Amid all the joys of Christmas, most folks find time for reflection, if only for a moment, seeking meaning in the holiday season. So, dare I wade into the social and political swamp of (yikes!) “meaning” in this winter holiday season?

You betcha. Because despite rampant commercialism, Christmas is a spiritual commemoration of the miracle birth of Christ Jesus, peace be upon him, and of that great teacher’s way of bringing the light into the world.

Of course, a lot of folks these days are scared of spiritual. That’s largely due to the tumult throughout history and throughout the world in the name of spiritual.

Yet the horrors that have been done in Jesus’ name — and those of many other great lights throughout the ages — hardly are representative of them. It’s worth noting that the Bible-totin’, cross-burning Ku Klux Klan and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. both claimed guidance from the same holy book.

One result today is that people increasingly aren’t inclined to consider themselves aligned with any particular religious label. More and more, it seems, people are spiritual independents, so to speak. Not affiliated with any particular… er, party.

And that’s fine. It’s way past time for quibbling over how good people conceptualize their spirituality.

In fact, we’d all be better off if the world could grasp the simple concept that there should be no compulsion in matters of religion.

I’m finding that more and more people, some more actively than others, are trying to learn what other folks are spiritually about — or not — and honor that.

Given the occasion, I keep thinking back to what I wrote a few years ago in a column titled, “This Muslim Honors Christmas.”

“I hardly claim to speak for all Muslims, who are as diverse as humanity. But count me among those for whom this day highlights the spirit of love and humility that Jesus taught and lived, and of whom God says in the Quran (57:27): ‘We gave Jesus the Gospel and put compassion and mercy into the hearts of his followers.’ ”

I mentioned that for decades it has been my practice to bestow ribbon-bedecked bottles of Martinelli apple cider upon friends, a token of both the season’s joy and sober reflection.

I cited, though not by name, my dear now departed friend Stebbins Jefferson’s query: “I thought you didn’t celebrate Christmas.”

I don’t, was my reply, but I honor it because she — and so many others whom God has made the repositories of so much grace and good in America and the world — do.

A lot has changed since then, of course — and little has.

Roberta Popara, associate director of Our Lady of Florida Spiritual Center in North Palm Beach, said that being in Iraq for Christmas in 2003 “gave me an opportunity to see how a Christian minority and another culture celebrate one of the most important feast days second only to Easter.”

Most countries don’t observe the cultural Christmas that Americans do, said the Dominican Sister. “Rather the religious significance takes precedent. Even so, in homes and shops there are modest displays for this holiday. Even some Muslim shopkeepers display Christmas lights and images of Baba Noel, as Arabic speakers call our Santa Claus. Special foods such as kibbi and pasha become usual fare for the holidays. There is some gift giving but again, very simple. The Christian community gathers for plays and pageants as well as prayerful observance of the holy season.”

“Even so,” she said, “since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and the rise of counter insurgency, holy seasons such as Christmas bring their own fear upon this minority community as certain groups, claiming they are doing God’s will, bring terror and death by targeting Christian churches and gatherings.

“This needs to be understood in balance with the continued experiences of terror for the ordinary Iraqi citizen regardless of religious identity.”

Methinks Muslims and others should be more aware of an episode in the early history of the Muslim community.

Severely persecuted in Mecca, some left to Ethiopia, whose Christian Negus sheltered them. The Meccans pursued, seeking their forced return. The Muslims appealed to the king that they once had been steeped in ignorance, worshiping idols and committing abominations, but had turned to worship only the creator. They recited the opening verses of the Quran’s chapter 19, named for Jesus’ mother Mary, at which the ruler wept.

The Meccans then claimed that Muslims disrespect Jesus, to which the reply came that the prophet taught that Jesus was a creature of God and his prophet, as well as his spirit and his word, which was cast unto the Blessed Virgin Mary. Upon which the king said he would never give up the Muslims to their persecutors.

There’s been way too much suffering among religious folk since. Witness “An Advent Evening of Commemoration and Reflection” for the four U.S. churchwomen martyred in El Salvador on Dec. 2, 1980.

The Dec. 14 advent program, hosted by Pax Christi Palm Beach at St. Ann Church in West Palm Beach, remembered Sisters Maura Clarke, Ita Ford, Dorothy Kazel and lay missioner Jean Donovan.

They had accepted dire risk in choosing to remain and serve as a shield for El Salvador’s persecuted poor. What else would his sincere followers do, than what Jesus would do?

Hearing their stories, my sense is the sisters would have appreciated a moment of levity from several Sundays ago, courtesy of the Rev. Carol Yorke of the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Palm Beaches.

“So, you do know what would have happened if it had been three wise women instead of men, don’t you? They would have asked for directions. Arrived on time. Helped deliver the baby. Cleaned the stable. Made a casserole. And brought disposable diapers as gifts.

Rev. Yorke went on to remind that, “Horror and tragedy do not mean the end of meaning, unless we choose to view it that way.”

Instead, she said, “We can choose gratitude.”

There’s room to remember that meaning of this day and season.

Christmas, as someone once said, is what you make of a reflection of your values, desires, affections and traditions.

With spiritual label or not.

— C.B. Hanif

Islam, by defintion, rejects terrorism

By C.B. Hanif

The Palm Beach Post

October 15, 2006

As one who grew up rooting for Tarzan and Cheetah to whip up on my Afro-wigged cousins portraying Hollywood’s idea of Africans, I can understand how people buy into social myths of one sort or another. And having been as clueless as most folks regarding religious traditions beyond the ones with which we grew up, I am not surprised to hear certain perceptions some folks have of Muslims.

But it is curious to observe otherwise rational people defining Islam by those who behave opposite of what the faith prescribes. To confuse the lunatic fringe with Islam’s mainstream is where much of the discourse on significant current events gets off track.

So as a Muslim heading down the home stretch of our month of rededication and dawn-to-dusk fasting called Ramadan, it is heartening that despite the barrage of guilt by association of Muslims as terrorists, many people know better.

Newsweek reports (http://www.msnbc.msn.com) that thousands of members of the Roman Catholic peace group Pax Christi USA are fasting for Ramadan. And that especially since 9/11, “non-Muslims have fasted to express political solidarity with Muslims, to increase awareness of global hunger, as a spiritual discipline, or to strengthen interfaith friendship.”

Rather than campaigning for folks to change their religion, that sounds like encouraging more who claim one to live their religion.

It also suggests fewer folks are buying when a Tom, Dick or Hanif claims the cultural practices or politics of his native Egypt, Sudan or Brooklyn represent Islam. And that more people are correctly associating Muslims with the authentic sources of the faith: the Quran and true example of Mohammed the prophet.

Another take on fasting friends came in the letter my close friends in the Focolare lay Catholic community (www.focolare.org) just shared from their Center for Interreligious Dialogue in Rome. It announced that members of the movement, along with fellow Christians and folks of other religions and convictions who would like to do so, will “be united with you in a day of prayer and fasting for peace,” as proposed by other organizations, on Oct. 20, the last Friday of Ramadan.

The letter also conveyed the hopes of Focolare leader Chiara Lubich that, “as our spirituality suggests, every obstacle may become a springboard toward a much deeper brotherhood among us.”

The statement exemplifies how when I’m among members of that worldwide, multiethnic, multi-religious family that lives like the first Christians, I hear the articulation of my own spirituality as a Muslim coming back at me in different language. So much so that I realized days after a recent Focolare meeting in Hialeah that Pope Benedict XVI’s comments on Islam had not even come up.

I’m with the Muslims who join the pope in calling for an end to all religiously motivated violence and persecution in some so-called Muslim societies.

One interesting analysis, however, comes from journalist, peace activist, former member of the Israeli Knesset and self-described atheist Uri Avnery. On “Mohammed’s Sword” (http://world.mediamonitors.net/content/ view/full/35746), he wrote that:

“The story about ‘spreading the faith by the sword’ is an evil legend, one of the myths that grew up in Europe during the great wars against the Muslims — the reconquista of Spain by the Christians, the Crusades and the repulsion of the Turks, who almost conquered Vienna. I suspect that the German pope, too, honestly believes in these fables. That means that the leader of the Catholic world, who is a Christian theologian in his own right, did not make the effort to study the history of other religions.”

But those are points for dialogue among our responsible religious leaders. Down on our level, familiarity is breeding knowledge, respect and love. The talk is of family, cultivating the human spirit, building our communities and maybe a bit of World Cup soccer. Through the fog of old assumptions comes clarity and even agreement on what we believe. Such as that there should be no compulsion in matters of faith, as the Quran prescribes.

When others take such verses out of their historical context, I am reminded that both the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Ku Klux Klan taught from the Bible. And Mohammed of Arabia wasn’t the first prophet contradicted by alleged followers of the principles he taught. Moses stepped away for a talk with God and his followers, despite all the miracles they had seen, began worshipping a golden calf.

Anyone seen all-American icon Muhammad Ali rioting over the pope’s comments? With his annual appearance at our Muslim Convention, which took place last month in Chicago, the increasingly frail former heavyweight champ makes clear that he’s standing with Imam W. Deen Mohammed, the son of his former teacher the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and sincere people of other faiths who are advancing these sentiments among Muslims and humanity.

This year, our scintillating banquet speaker, the Rev. Dr. Annie O. Oliver of Milwaukee, said well what applies to Muslims and anyone who claims a particular faith or philosophy: “If I was accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict me?”

C.B. Hanif is an editorial writer for The Palm Beach Post.

Copyright (c) 2006 Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.

Appreciation to my friend Imam Enrique Rasheed of Jacksonville for alerting me to this item (“Let ‘God’ be ‘God’!”) in an online publication, The American Muslim. The site is another readily available resource that clearly states — contrary to repeated statements by those who don’t know, and others who don’t want to know — that “Muslims Denounce Terror,” and that “Terror Has No Religion.”

The publication also refers readers to “a lengthy collection of Muslim denunciations of terrorism, extremism and violence.” It includes “collections of responses to claims about Islam and Muslims, resources about Islamophobia, and general resources on many topics.”

In short, it’s another of the readily available resources that the professional haters, and too many of my colleagues in the news media, in academia and elsewhere, prefer to claim don’t exist, as they focus attention instead on the relatively few extremists, and the even fewer violent extremists among those, who act in contradiction of the Quran, which is unmistakable in stating that:

“Whoever kills a human being, it is as if he killed all mankind. And whoever saves the life of one, it is as if he saved all mankind” (5:32).

Imam Enrique’s e-mail grabbed my attention because the Malaysia subject came up last week during my excellent Bible class at the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-By-The-Sea, where Tom O’Brien currently is guiding us to better understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures.

To hear of Malaysian officials snatching people’s Bibles for using “Allah,” as Arabic-speaking Christians obviously do, and as others the world over routinely translate the Arabic for “God,” sounded patently absurd; inconsistent with reason or common sense. Not to mention a contradiction of the Quran, which prescribes:

“Let there be no compulsion (my italics) in matters of religion” (2:256).

I can’t offer enough appreciation for our Bible class, of which O’Brien says: “The art for us is to find that which is timeless and integrate it into our lives.”

Following the logic of a few misguided folks in Malaysia and elsewhere, however, a Muslim should not be allowed to benefit from such a class. To the contrary, I’m a beneficiary of the growth among many in my country who have left that kind of bigotry behind.

To offer a critique of the excellent essay by my friend Dr. Parvez Ahmed and his co-author, it seemed their piece might have communicated better had it been a bit less academic.

“Normative Islam”? I can see Muslim and non-Muslim eyes glazing over on that one. Among the article’s various descriptions for the “Ultimate Listener,” the “one Possibility,” and the references to the fact that “we worship the same God,” I looked for one clearly recognizing that same God as — The Creator. The Maker — of all we know, and the infinite we don’t know. The One Who says in the Quran, in the chapter titled The Hajj:

“Those on Whom ye call other than God can never create as much as a fly, even if they combined together to do so. And if the fly should snatch anything away from them, they would have no power to recover it” (22:73).

My hopefully constructive criticism echoes the recent outstanding Islamic education session during which a noted imam observed that Muslims often ”don’t talk real enough, we’re talking lofty.”

The words were from Imam Abdul’Haq Muhammed of Ft. Myers, a widely recognized public servant and convener of the Florida Conference of Muslim Americans. Imam Haq, as we affectionately call him, urged that in our local communities we “speak real, talk real. Because people are not up there where we think we are.”

Thus the reminder for myself and others to do more plain talking. With that, let me affirm that I long ago got out of the judging business. The quote marks around “Muslims” in the title of this post are meant to emphasize that by definition, we cannot rationally claim a label that our actions contradict.

For example, in speaking to various groups on these kinds of issues, I often point out that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the Ku Klux Klan, both claimed the Bible. Both claimed to be following the teachings of Jesus Christ, God’s great Word to humanity, upon whom observant Muslims pray Peace.

In that inconsistency is a reminder: that the One Who made us all is sufficient to judge who truly are Christians. And, similarly, who truly follow God’s revelation to humanity  in the Quran, as well as who is sincere to all the other labels we human beings claim.