U.S.A.-TEXAS: "CHRISTMAS" IS HONORED BY MOSLEMS...

For Muslims, Christmas is 'something to honor'
By Lisa Marie Gomez,
San Antonio Express-NewsSaturday,
December 9, 2006

SAN ANTONIO — Dr. Amir Sadeghi played Christmas music on the piano at his home here as his wife and two young daughters put ornaments and other final touches on their Christmas tree.

The blaze in the fireplace kept the living room festive, and the girls were giggling as they took turns putting Santa hats on each other.

It was a scene straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting except for one thing: Sadeghi and his family are practicing Muslims.

"We believe it's good for kids to be exposed to different cultures and religions," Sadeghi said while sipping on traditional hot Persian tea.

"Christmas is a very happy occasion — it's something to honor."

Sadeghi and his wife, Hengameh Karimi, both grew up in Iran, where they observed their Muslim upbringing under the relatively westernized Mohammad Reza Shah government.

Even in Tehran, though, setting up a Christmas tree wasn't something they did. That came after they married and had their first daughter, Ahva Sadeghi, 13 years ago. Their younger daughter, Nava Sadeghi, is 11. Decorating a Christmas tree and stringing lights all became part of the assimilation process, which continues today for the family in other ways.

"We attend church services from various religions, and the girls even go to Bible study so they can learn and listen," said Karimi, 45, a nuclear engineer. "When we get invited by our Christian friends and Mormon friends to attend their services, we go. It's a great way to learn."

Sadeghi, also 45, and a doctor of radiation oncology at the Texas Cancer Clinic, puts it this way:

"Why not? There's enough stress in the world," he said.

The family's willingness to adapt to the American culture, which largely celebrates Christian holidays, is becoming more common, said Sarwat Husain, 54, a Muslim community activist in San Antonio who is president of the local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Husain grew up in Pakistan. Once she moved to the United States, married and had children, Husain and her husband decided to buy Christmas trees and decorate them as a family activity.

"Our kids loved to see the Christmas trees with all the lights, and they would say to me, 'Mom, how beautiful is that,'" she said. "So we did the Christmas tree thing for a few years until they outgrew it."

She said other Muslims also are making the decision to have Christmas trees.

"It's a neat activity to do with the kids, so you'll see Muslims putting up a tree here," Husain said.

Some, but certainly not all. Like many other Americans, many Muslims aren't fond of the increasing commercialism overtaking Christmas. That's true for Lyana Snow, 25, who also is working hard, as a convert to Islam, to strictly uphold Muslim traditions.

Snow converted about seven years ago while living in Little Rock, Ark., where she grew up as a Southern Baptist.

Her husband of six years, Syed Imam, is from India and was born and raised Muslim.

Together they have a 2-year-old daughter and, they've decided not to put up a Christmas tree.

"As Muslims, we're taught to be connected as little as possible to the materialism of this world because this is a transitional place for us," said

Snow, whose family back home always put up a tree the first weekend after Thanksgiving.
Snow said the only year she's had a tree in the past seven years was last year when her 81-year-old grandmother came to stay with Snow's family.

"We brought in a small lighted Christmas tree and put presents under it out of respect for her and her tradition," Snow said. "But we kept it at a minimum and the tree went down the day after she left."


Pertinent Links:

1) For Muslims, Christmas is 'something to honor'