How Europe Celebrated Christmas: Faces of European Tolerance

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Written by Igor Pshenichkov; Originally appeared at TV Zvezda, translated by AlexD exclusively for SouthFront

In Europe, as in Russia, Christmas and New Year celebrations are still going on. In the Old World, as is well known Christmas was celebrated on December 25. However, did Europeans celebrate this traditional celebration, for centuries considered the most family-oriented and warm-hearted?

Those inhabitants of the European countries that are still traditional do not believe their eyes. Almost everywhere in Europe the phrase “Merry Christmas” is considered politically incorrect and attempts are made to remove or sweep under the rug visible images of this concept in order not to “offend” Muslim immigrants. This year, even on the main Christmas tree, the most important one for all Catholics that is put up in Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican, there were “not even one religious, not even one Christian symbol” and it shocked the faithful.

What happened with “old woman Europe”? The fact of the matter is that the current physical displacement of the population in Europe by immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa is accompanied by a deep cultural and spiritual degradation of the indigenous Europeans. The inhabitants of the Old World today by and large are all the same, that “someone” removes the spiritual components from their lives, traditional values, the basis of which was Christianity. I do not speak of the differences between Catholicism and Protestantism in their different manifestations in Europe. This is not the case. What is important is that all these denominations are Christian. There is no denying that the whole European culture has grown and was built around Christianity. But today, as it turns out, in Europe no one speaks of it because it is not tolerant.

But it is tolerant to accept the rule of any and all minorities by the silent European majority (still the majority). Among these minorities, besides the LBGT community are the Muslim immigrants. Of all Europeans to resist, arguably only the Poles, Slovaks and Hungarians, do not intend to go against their national, cultural and religious traditions. So what do we see in the rest of the European countries?

Traditional Christmas markets in various European countries were called this year in such a way that the word “Christmas” was nowhere to be seen. “Amsterdam Winter Parade”, “Brussels Winter Joy”, “Kreuzberg Winter Fair” (in Berlin), “London Winter Village”, “Munich Winter Festival” – here is a partial list of what Christmas markets have degenerated into in Europe.

A question arises: who needs this and who is behind this? Is it the only thing that today’s Europeans are so removed from their own traditional religion? It is not only this. This fact only facilitates the work of the political leadership of the European countries, which extirpates Christianity in order not to provoke the active and fearless Muslim immigrants. And there is nothing to lose for the “guests”. In addition, they feel their power against the backdrop of amorphous and incapable of self-protection of the Europeans that they vividly demonstrate with their laws and their public behaviour. The immigrants despise the modern European culture, concerned with the recognition of same-sex marriage and other legislated enshrined liberal “values”. The American think-tank Gatestone Institute writes:

“The Christmas season this year was marked by disputes, connected with Islam, in almost every European country. The majority of conflicts were caused by the multi-cultural political and religious elites of Europe, who are inclined to secularise Christmas, presumably to ensure that Muslims were not offended by the Christian holiday”.

By itself it is surprising that the Americans are paying attention to this as they are “ahead of the rest” on the road towards oblivion of the centuries-old European traditions. So, under President Obama during the full eight years of his reign, the White House sent out on Christmas Eve cards in which the word “Christmas” was carefully avoided and instead was written “Season’s Greetings”. President Trump this year brought back the official Christmas cards, sent out by the White House, with the word “Christmas” which drew the attention of all American media.

However, the Europeans are still going their own way. Here are typical examples of universal European tolerance. In Lüneburg, a small town in Lower Saxony, teachers at the school and the parental committee postponed the Christmas party at the demand from a Muslim schoolgirl, who said, “Singing Christmas songs is incompatible with her faith”.

In Lyon, the Christmas fair was cancelled “because of the exorbitant costs for security related for protection due to Islamic terror”. In neighbouring Belgium, the head of the Red Cross in Liege André Ruffer ordered the 28 offices of his organisation in the city to remove the crucifix, “to assert the secular identity of the organisation”. Critics of this measure said that this decision was part of a broader effort “to change some terminology” and “dismantle our traditions and our roots” to appease the Muslims.

“Once we talked about the Christmas holidays, now we talk about the winter holidays”, said a local Red Cross volunteer.

In Norway the administration of the primary school of the provincial town Skien announced that the Christmas celebrations this year will include not only the usual reading of passages from the Bible by students, but Quranic verses as well that supposedly relate to Jesus Christ. The Norwegian Internet resource Document.no reported that the proportion of immigrant school children is growing in Oslo, as well as in the Norwegian provinces and “it has implications for ethnic Norwegians”.

Not prone to straightforward criticism of the Europeans, as they are close to the Americans because of the general belonging to the so-called “Western civilisation”, the aforementioned Gatestone Institute nevertheless enumerated numerous examples of similar tolerance and complete rejection of their identity in Great Britain, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, Norway and France. But the most disturbing is the fact that the governments of the European countries are trying to “Islamise Christmas”, that is weld two religions, with a bias in favour of Islam, in order to “calm” the followers of this religion flooding Europe. This religious phenomenon has been called “Chrislam” and its gaining strength in the West. For example, in Great Britain, in the Church of All Saints in Kingston (one the areas of London) on December 3, 2107 a “joint celebration of the birth of Jesus and Muhammad” was held. On the flyer in anticipation of this event it was written “Celebrating the birthday of the prophet Muhammad with the anticipation of the birth of Jesus”.

“The hour-long service included an Islamic prayer followed by a luncheon with a celebratory cake which is served on birthdays”, stated the British Internet site The Christian Institute. And previously, in the same Great Britain, but this time in the Scottish Episcopalian church in Glasgow, during the Christian feast day of Epiphany, excerpts from the Quran were read, which denies that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. This is what “Chrislam” is.

Question: who is behind all this? The answer is above. That is, governments as a whole. But the British Catholics were more specific. They accused the regional government of Scotland in “undermining” the Christian heritage of the UK through the promotion of the “winter festivals” for ethnic minorities, while ignoring Christmas.

“This is part of the general secularisation, which has occured in the Scottish government for a number of years, when our Christian heritage and values have been undermined by direct government policy”, declared the representative of one of the Christian philanthropic organisations Gordon Macdonald.

Of course, the voices of protest are spreading to other European countries. They are like the voice crying in the wilderness. The regional Italian politician from Milan (where they are also avoiding the word “Christmas”) Samuel Piscina wrote in his Facebook page: “The Word Christmas”, the symbol of our faith and our culture, does not discriminate anyone. The destruction of the symbol of Christmas does not warrant anyone’s respect (from the Muslims), does not create a welcoming school and society, where all is well, but promotes intolerance to our culture, our customs, our laws and our traditions”.

The few protest statements are reduced to a single thought: by destroying our culture, we will not gain the confidence of Muslims, but show them that we can be and continue to be disrespected. And it’s not that someone is against Islam as a religion. It is understood that everyone can freely practice any religion or not to practice any. But the fact is that in Europe there is a rapidly growing new and strong tradition, feeding on the body of the permanently dying old tradition, which, willingly or not, contribute to those circles that call themselves the European elite.

We are looking at the spiritual-cultural degradation of Europe, which leads to the full physical degradation and full physical disappearance of indigenous Europeans. In 30 years, according to statistics, there will be 75,6 Muslim immigrants and their descendants in Europe, or 14% of the population of the continent. This is taking into consideration that the Europeans will still have children. But to take this into consideration is self-deceiving, given that the basis of all social, political and even economic life of Europe was the so-called “gender ideology”, that do not presuppose the preservation of traditional family value, but promoting same-sex marriage, and the complete freedom from the “old” moral principles. On the backdrop of this “freedom” of the Europeans, the Muslims families in the same Europe, as everywhere else, have many children.

With the full cultural and spiritual insecurity of the European countries, in 30 years there will be a demographic replacement of Europeans by viable and active immigrants. And it’s not that the immigrants may be still the vast majority in three decades. The fact of the matter is that they will dictate life styles as they are actually trying to dictate now and in time create a new moral-spiritual basis in Europe. And then Europe will no longer be Europe.

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