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Sydney: Christmas fatwa 'taken out of context'
Australia's biggest mosque has removed a controversial post from its Facebook page that called for a fatwa against Christmas.
This is olde time religion stuff. Usually they are smart enough to keep it among themselves when in Dar al Harb. Still, who would expect mere infidels to check out the mosque's Facebook page?
Sydney's Lakemba mosque published the message after a similar speech at Friday prayers, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Sheik Yahya Safi is said to have told his followers to avoid participating in anything to do with Christmas.

The Facebook message posted on Saturday said Christmas Day was one of the "falsehoods that a Muslim should avoid ... and therefore, a Muslim is neither allowed to celebrate the Christmas Day nor is he allowed to congratulate them".

The fatwa quotes Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim who said that congratulating infidels for their beliefs was forbidden.

"Muslim who says this does not become a disbeliever himself, he at least commits a sin as this is the same as congratulating him for his belief in the trinity, which is a greater sin and much more disliked by Almighty Allaah than congratulating him for drinking alcohol or killing a soul or committing fornication or adultery".

The Lebanese Muslim Association (LMA), which manages the mosque said the comments had been taken out of context.

The LMA said a junior staff member copied and pasted the text from the internet without seeking approval.

To show the LMA was not anti-Christian the group arranged for the words 'Merry Xmas' to be written in the sky above the mosque this afternoon.
Posted by: tipper 2012-12-23
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=358596