Jakarta: The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) has announced that Muslims will be allowed to greet their fellow Christians with a “Merry Christmas”, a gesture that may boost religious harmony in the country.
The council chairman, Din Syamsuddin, who was speaking on Tuesday to clarify an earlier MUI ruling banning Muslims from wishing Merry Christmas to Christians, said that not a single article in the ruling explicitly barred Islamic followers from doing so.
Expressing respect through greetings to other religious believers had nothing to do with faith, as claimed by many hardline Islamic scholars, but it had more to do with socio-cultural activities that could improve friendship in multi-cultural life.
“Wishing a greeting as a form of our friendship to other faithfuls won’t damage our faith. Islam is not a narrow-minded religion. Greetings are more about culture, not faith,” Din said.
Muslim scholars have long been debating the controversy of wishing Merry Christmas to Christians.
Some said that Christmas is a religious festivity celebrating the birthday of Jesus, the son of God worshipped by Christians.
Hardline Muslims believed that wishing Christians a Merry Christmas could be interpreted as believing that Jesus was a divine being and not just a prophet, a violation of Muslim belief.
Din said that the MUI, through its ruling established under the tenure of former chairman Buya Hamka in the early 1980s, prohibited Muslims from attending Christmas festivities, as it claimed that such activities were closely related to worshipping God.
“The MUI created the ruling in the 1970s and 1980s because at that time Muslims were invited to become committee members of Christmas celebrations (at churches). Islam is very strict when it comes to religious celebration, which has something to do with faith. But not a single article in the ruling prohibits Muslims from wishing Merry Christmas,” he added.
Ahmad Fuad Fanani of the Maarif Institute for Culture and Humanity said that the Merry Christmas controversy had been recurring every year. Thus, he urged religious leaders to sit together to solve the problem.
“Wishing Merry Christmas is an individual right and it has more to do with social life than faith. Both conflicting parties involved in the controversy should understand each other better, that wishing Merry Christmas is a personal right and they cannot blame each other as being wrong or right,” Fuad said on Tuesday.
— Jakarta Post / Asia News Network