Christmas Song Revives Religious Debate

[Champ]

ROME (Reuters) - An Italian teacher's efforts to make a Christmas carol more acceptable to young Muslim students by removing the word "Jesus" has rekindled the debate over religious symbols in the Roman Catholic country.



A middle-school teacher in the northern Italian town of Como set off a storm when she told Muslims in her class that if they preferredthey could replace the line "this is the day of Jesus" with "this is the day of virtue."

"Jesus banned in Christmas songs" the daily Il Giornale, run by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's brother, said in a front-page headline Sunday.


"Substituting the word Jesus in a Christmas song is a serious mistake and an offence against the entire Catholic community," Como's mayor, Stefano Bruno, from the center-right Forza Italia (Go Italy) party, told Agi news agency.

Religion has been an increasingly prickly issue in Italy as immigrant communities grow.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=583&ncid=583&e=3&u=/nm/20041206/od_nm/life_italy_christmas_dc

[gollygee]

1. Ok, so let me get this straight.

The teacher said that muslim students could replace the word Jesus with "virtue" *if they wanted to* and that becomes "banning Jesus" ??

Uh huh. Typical logic.

[izzie]

2. And the reindeer?

All those red noses.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

4. Commies, I tells ya! (nt)

[Ian David]

3. Just like "optional" school prayer that the fundies want here

[ET Awful]

5. Hmmm, considering that Muslims believe in Jesus, that he was a prophet

and that he was born of immaculate conception, it's doubtful that a Muslim would be adverse to saying his name. They don't buy into the whole "son of God" aspect, but they believe he existed.

[JCMach1]

6. This is profoundly stupid... the Emir of Sharjah's grandkid

goes to my daughter's British school here in the UAE... Every year they hold a Christmas play... The kid was one of the wisemen!

They also sing religious songs and pray at assemblies...