Several stories about saying "Merry Christmas" reminded me of a little incident

[rurallib]

about a year and a half ago.

I was giving blood. It was the middle of June and also about the middle of Ramadan.
One of the nurses was a strict Muslim originally from Egypt. The other a local person.

I was talking with the Muslim nurse about how hard it must be for her to fast from dawn to dusk at the longest days of the year. She was getting a little older and she said it got harder every year.
We talked about how Ramadan moves back about 15 days or so every year so in a few years Ramadan would be at Christmas time which are the shortest days of the year. It wouldn't be so bad to fast when the days are only 9 hours long.

Which caused the local nurse to join in and ask why 'they' would schedule Ramadan during Christmas. Nobody wants to fast at Christmas she said. Couldn't 'they' reschedule Ramadan so it wasn't on Christmas?

The Muslim nurse and I looked at each other trying not to laugh. The other nurse said something like 'don't you celebrate Christmas?' to the Muslim nurse. Before she ended the sentence she understood what she was saying. She turned a little pink and said nothing Nor did I or the Muslim nurse. We just went on with the procedure.

[hlthe2b]

1. Muslims do perceive Jesus as a prophet, just not the son of God. I received Christmas cards

for a number of years from Muslim friends in Egypt (as well as Coptic Christians, of course).

So, while they do not celebrate Christmas, they are certainly not antagonized nor in opposition to it anymore than most (TRUE) Christians are of Hanukkah.

But, yes, few Americans know squat about Islam (or other religions) and that is a big part of the problem.

[bobbieinok]

2. Recalls how surprised grade-school kids were that Germany didn't celebrate Thanksgiving.

Or St Patrick's Day.