"Santa Claus Came Down… Without Asking Permission"
"We couldn’t believe what our eyes saw as we roamed the streets of Tizi Ouzo. If it were not for this photo caught by our camera, we would have said we were lying, and you would have said we were lying as well - and rightfully so.
"'Santa Claus' came down to the streets of Tizi Ouzo, without asking permission, and here he is… making the rounds gleefully in his carriage full of bells, attracting people who are weak in their faith and distributing 'presents' to them in the name of the Lord 'Jesus.' All this happens without anyone saying anything or raising any objection, from the Ministry of Religious Affairs to the last of those authorities who are zealous for Islam.
"Whoever walks through the streets of the Tizi Ouzo district these days will run up against the strange cultural turning away from Islamic principles, in that the city's streets show the distinctive signs of the Christian New Year holiday. This phenomenon is not limited to the Tizi Ouzo district, but [also] encompasses some of the country's major districts, and is expressed in what we see - namely, that the preparations for celebrating this occasion are comparable [in scope] to the preparations for [Islamic] religious or national celebrations, sometimes even outdoing them.
"Anyone who wanders among the food shops in this city will notice that they are devoting themselves to making Christmas cakes… The owner of one of the shops told us that on the eve of the holiday, the demand for these cakes exceeded the supply, despite their high price… He also said that sometimes, the lines of citizens who won't do without these cakes even reach outside the shop. This reflects the devotion of some residents of this region to this occasion [i.e. Christmas]. In addition, the streets of Tizi Ouzo are not without stores selling Christmas trees…"
The Goats Drawing Santa's Carriage Show "Signs of Distress at the Imitation of Christians"
"What adds to the impression this occasion leaves on people's souls is 'Santa Claus' coming in his legendary carriage, decorated in red, full of bells, and drawn by two goats - except that these goats come from the native mountains of Tizi-Ouzo, and not from… the Alps in Europe… These goats show signs of distress at the imitation of Christians - distress that we did not see on the face of the one who forced them to take part in such a scene. People swarmed around this procession to take souvenir photos…
"The holiday atmosphere on the Christian New Year is evident also in the fact that the large square in the city center is decorated with red lights, and the shops write on their windows 'Happy [New] Year' in French.
"Faced with this shedding of principles of faith and culture, the mosques, in the region and beyond it, continue striving to awaken these people from their Western intoxication - especially in these kinds of regions [i.e. Berber regions] and on these kinds of occasions [i.e. Christian holidays], where religious awareness is so lacking that tears of grief are shed."
"Santa Claus Appearing… is a Sure Sign of the Swiftly Descending Danger"
"It appears that the fears… concerning the Christianization of the Kabylie region have in effect come true this time, and it has become clear that President Bouteflika's admonition to the region's population to uphold Islam and not to surrender to the lures of Christianization… stemmed from knowledge of what is going on there. 'Santa Claus' appearing there, overtly this time, is a sure sign of the swiftly descending danger that has come into [our] Algerian home. Will the relevant authorities - and first and foremost the Ministry of Religious Affairs - seize the initiative, or will [Algeria] be left to its own devices, in confronting the death arriving from the West?" [6]
[1] El-Watan (Algeria), October 17, 2004.
[2] L'Expression (Algeria), April 17, 2006.
[3] http://www.metransparent.com/texts/algeria_adopts_anti_christian_law.htm, citing www.alarabiya.net.
[4] See, for instance, T. Ould Amar's article "Jesus en Kabyle" (December 28, 2006), and Mourad Hammami, "Le Christianisme gagne du terrain en Kabylie" (September 10, 2006).
[5] http://www.kabyle.com/Evangelisation-en-Kabylie-Arte-17,11182.html.
[6] El-Shourouq El-Yawmi (Algeria), December 24, 2006.
Friday, January 5, 2007
Religion of Peace's War Against Christmas
Where is Bill O'Reilly? If Someone has a copy of the December 24th edition of the Algerian daily El-Shourouq El-Yawmi please send it to the Fox TV host. In it there was an op-ed warning that the dangerous Santa was invading the country, and the people should stay away from cake shops because the country might think that they are eating Christmas Cakes. Wow!!! Talk about the War Against Christmas. Read the excerpts of the article (H/T Memri).
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2 comments:
You've got to be a little bit more intellectually honest here. Tell me, how do you think most of the denizens of Meah Shearim or Boro Park would react if Santa would come spreading Xmas cheer among them? I am pretty sure Yated Ne'eman or various other Haredi publications would have an opinion about that. Would you post it on your blog and then tsk tsk away at how intolerant those Jews are? Look, religious pluralism is a lovely thing and I will be the first to denounce the nasty persecutions of non-Muslims in most of the countries of the Muslim world. Example-an Afghan man who converted to Christianity from Islam being tried for heresy and sentenced to be executed. This is worth decrying as religious persecution and Islamic intolerance in your little blog. But if an Algerian Muslim community frets about the pervasive influence of the Santa Claus cult brainwashing their kinderlekh, while I don't support them banning it--I can, as a Jew empathise with them. I was upset when I saw Santa at the mall in Tel Aviv myself. For this we built a Jewish state? Somehow, I doubt you would take a Jewish publication to task for worrying about too much Christmas in Israel. That is called a double standard, habibi.
I don't think so. While it is primarily a Muslim state...Once you talk about throwing people in Jail or major fines for observing Christmas, I think that's where you cross the line.
Shabbat Shalom Chaver
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