By Farooq Kperogi As Christians around the world mark Christmas today, I join millions in wishing my Christian friends a blessed and joyfu...
By Farooq Kperogi
As Christians around the world mark Christmas today, I join millions in wishing my Christian friends a blessed and joyful celebration.
May the season remind us of love, humility, mercy, and the strength of grace and tolerance, even in a noisy and divided world.
Now, a word to my Nigerian Christian friends. Please do not hide behind the occasional social media sermon from a few overzealous Muslim fanatics declaring Christmas food “haram” as an excuse to deny me my Christmas rice and goat meat o. That argument will not fly sam sam.
I have been eating Christmas food since I was a small and highly impressionable child. My late father, an Islamic Studies and Arabic teacher, routinely and gratefully collected Christmas food from Christian relatives and neighbors and shared it with us at home.
He always made sure to “retaliate” generously with juicy ram meat during big Sallah. Justice was balanced.
During the more than four years I lived in Kano in the 1990s, I never once heard anyone claim Christmas food was forbidden. Our neighbors in the family house in Sharada were a lovely Christian family from Port Harcourt, and we eagerly awaited their sumptuous Christmas spreads.
As expected, Sallah came with a well-coordinated counteroffensive of juicy meat.
Even during the one year I lived in Katsina in 1997, not once did anyone raise the alarm that Christmas food was haram.
So, yes, this Malam loves Christmas food and reserves the right to retaliate against any Christian who withholds it by also placing strategic sanctions on Sallah meat.
If you want my Sallah meat next year, you already know what to do today.
All jokes aside, as you celebrate this special day, may your homes be filled with peace, your hearts with hope, and your lives with kindness toward all.
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