A fatwa on Birmingham Airport, says Jacqueline
Published:
December 30, 2008 at 3:14pm
The Times, Tuesday, 30th December 2008
Shameful crib
Jacqueline Busuttil, Ta’ Xbiex
Martin G. Spillane (December 24) was right to be distraught at what he saw at Birmingham International Airport: a large wooden crib in which Mary, Joseph and the shepherds had been replaced by dancing polar bears and our beloved Jesus by a teddy bear. What an insult Our Lord must feel! Shame on those who are responsible for this mockery. I am sure every Christian in the world is offended.
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Only a fundamentalist Christian might be offended by that “polar bear crib musical”, a democratic and liberal Christian could laugh about its tackiness…or just ignore it!
Well, for some people Christianity is their life and they take this as a mockery of their beliefs and of a tradition lost. I’m not offended, but I do think its stupid in a lame way. Stupid in a sense, like those people who never take offence for themselves, but take offence for other people. God forbid a policeman says something about Somalia, thats wrong, thats like a whole Airport making fun of a major religion or something. (give me a break daph).
The crib has been considered a representation of Christian belief for nigh-on 900 years . To put dancing-bears in it is, at the very least, an exercise in bad taste.
Looks like another case of British PC gone too far.
This is not a case ‘branding’ of fatwa. A secular state must respect other peoples’s beliefs otherwise it will be acting in a fundamentalist manner itself.
I can’t see what the fuss is about. As I commented on The Times website, aren’t polar bears quite cuddly and fun? What better way to portray the nativity scene for children? Now, I’m the first one not to care about promoting the birth of Jesus, but if I were I’d think this to be an excellent idea.
Ah, and the bloody fatwa envy by one commentator just makes me laugh. If you are Roman Catholic and claim you’re tolerant because you are more tolerant than a suicide bomber, then have it your way by all means.
The funny thing is that Christmas as celebration of the birth of Christ was iself originally a hijack, by Christians, of older winter festivals. Polar bears seem to me to be a good point of departure for a move back to the old, authentic values. Ahem.
[Daphne – You’re right, and I was about to post an article I’d written about that, but didn’t feel like looking it up. I spent some days in Copenhagen earlier this month and it was WONDERFUL to experience the original spirit of ‘Christ’ mas – Jul, with absolutely no sign of cribs, infants in managers or the rest of it. It was all hot wine, festive cheer, winter warmth, stalls selling hot soup and candied nuts, sparkling stars, reindeer, snow….I visited the second city, Aarhus, and saw the first and only crib in a Roman Catholic bookshop, looking really odd and out of place. The real spirit of Christmas is about food and warmth and fighting off the dark spirits of winter, which is why people are naturally drawn to it, but have to be forced to contemplate the birth of Christ. Oh and Mark, you forgot to mention that Mulied is a Muslim festival: the birth of Mohammed.]
When I was in South Carolina two years ago, at this time of the year there was not one single instant where I could see a “Happy Christmas” banner. “Happy Holiday Season” could be seen everywhere.
A week later I was in Shanghai, and in communist China I could see quite a lot of “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Christmas” streamers (sometimes badly written) in hotels and restaurants.How ironic.
So if Mulied is the festival of Mohammed’s birth, were do ‘tqarbin’ and ‘mghamudija’ come from?
I don’t feel it is PC to put dancing polar bears instead of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in the crib. Like H.P. said they went one too far with this PC.
[Daphne – Exactly what do ‘tqarbin’ and ‘mghamudija’ have to do with Christmas? Where does Randan come from, do you think, and Ghid? And ‘genna’?]
What will happen next. Someone naming their own teddy bear Jesus. Perhaps aided by a teacher…
LOL @ “What an insult Our Lord must feel!” – that phrase alone says so much about the intellectual capacity of the writer of that letter. While I understand that some people feel the need to believe in some creator of the universe to feel complete, it makes no sense to me that these believers refuse to use their bird brains and realise that anyone who creates a universe will sure as heck not be much perturbed by a polar bear crib. The stupidity of some blind believers is just astounding.
‘Milied’has nothing to do specifically with the birth of Mohammed, and simply means the occasion of someone’s birth (for the linguistically-minded it is a ‘nom mimmmat’ from ‘wiled’ – to give birth to). My ‘milied’ would be the celebration/occasion of my birthday.
While Christmas did supplant the day of the Roman Sun-god’s (Mithras’) birthday, for the past 2000 years it has been venerated as the celebration of Jesus’ birth. Almost 2 billion Christians (of different denominations) consider this day as a commemoration of the pivotal event in human history according to their belief? Is is too much to ask that this belief should be respected?
Thanks Manuel for your informed explanation.My curiosity about the origin of certain words used in the Catholic religion which are of Semitic or Sicolo-Arab origin. The verbs “ghammed” and “qarben” come to mind ,also the origin of “fgili” is not so straight forward.From what you wrote here you seem to be well versed on this subject.
Jesus’s birth is indeed a pivotal event to the whole world , we are in the year of our Lord 2009 ,or AD 2009.
@John Schembri
It’s not “fgili” but “vgili” which comes from “vigil”.