While Fox News hypes a bogus 'War on Christmas' that consists of people saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" or nativity scenes on public property having to share space with Festivus poles, events in other parts of the world show us what a real 'War on Christmas' looks like.
Just like last year, militant Islamists in Nigeria, likely members of a sect called Boko Haram, carried out an attack on Nigerian Christians on Christmas Eve.
From the BBC:
Gunmen in the northern Nigerian state of Yobe have shot dead at least six Christians, the army and local officials say.
They say a church in Peri village near Potiskum, the economic capital of Yobe, was set on fire in an attack late on Christmas Eve.
The head of the Network for Justice human rights group, Zakari Adamu, told the BBC that the gunmen also attacked the homes of Christians following the attack during the midnight mass service.
And then we have Indonesia.
This article reminds me of how right-wing Christians in this country react whenever President Obama makes any kind of nod towards Muslim-Americans.
Conservative Muslim leaders are not stopping with edicts forbidding Muslims from wishing Christians a Merry Christmas. Now they want the President not to attend any observation of the holiday in an official or personal capacity.
Separately, the infamous hard-line Islam Defenders Front (FPI) said that Yudhoyono and Boediono would “undermine” Islam if they decided to attend the celebration.
Muchsin Ahmad Alatas, the head of the FPI’s campaign division, advised the President and Vice President not to attend the celebration. “They decided to attend the program because they don’t have sufficient understanding of Islam,” Muchsin said. “They should have consulted with people who understand Islam better before making their decision.”
It's one thing to tell a Muslim who is president of a Muslim majority country not to attend a Christmas celebration. It's quite another when Christians themselves are prevented from celebrating their holiday.
The members of two besieged Christian congregations on Jakarta’s outskirts are worried that hard-line groups will not let them observe Christmas in their own churches.
Rev. Palti Panjaitan of the Filadelfia Batak Christian Protestant Church (HKBP) in Bekasi, West Java, said that his congregation was again banned on Sunday from holding services in their half-built church.
The last time I checked, there were no atheists, or as Fox News blowhard Bill O'Reilly likes to call us, 'secular progressives.' preventing Christians from attending midnight mass, tearing down nativity displays from private property, or burning down churches. If Fox News were a legitimate news organization, it could instead focus on showing its viewers what real religious intolerance looks like.
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