A frosty Christmas

Dayton mullah issues fatwa against Christmas

DAYTON, Ohio (RWN) - Very few people celebrate Christmas openly anymore, but it's a sure bet that if you did, and you lived in Dayton, you wouldn't know.

Mullah Omar, the imam of Dayton, issued a fatwa earlier today against Christmas.
"This is a Muslim nation," Omar said, "and we should not have to live with the festooning of trees or the signs celebrating Christ."

Omar is known as one of the most conservative mullahs in the country, and, on occasion, has made statements similar to the one today. But he has never come right out and attacked Christmas.

The fatwa would affect about 1,500 people in Dayton, the city's estimated Catholic population.

"I don't know why the mullah decided to go off right now and about this," said Father Mark Guthrie at Our Lady of Compassion Church in downtown Dayton. "We do our services and celebrations very quietly here - there are no signs or 'festooning' of outside trees. Our flock celebrates mostly at their homes. The only thing I can think of is that religious relations have been going too well between the Muslims and the Catholics, lately, and the mullah likes to stir things up."

Merchants around the country rarely stock Christmas ornaments or supplies; specialized Catholic stores carry most of that, very discreetly in most cities outside of New England, where a strong Catholic base exists.

"I was walking last year, past one of the infidel churches," Omar said. "It was their Christmas Eve and I looked inside. Every person in there, the tall and the small, was singing. Some had presents, some had no presents at all. And I got to thinking that if this is such a holy day for the infidels, there should not be mirth.

"For their own good, I issued the fatwa. They need to be more reverent. Christmas may come this year, but I don't want to see it. The Catholic Christmas will come - if my fatwa is not obeyed - but it will come without ribbons or tags or packages or boxes or bags."





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