COMMENTARY: Consumerism Also Overshadows Muslim Holidays

c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) With Christmas still fresh in our minds, American Muslims are looking forward to our own holiday, Eid ul-Adha, a three-day celebration (Jan. 10-12) that marks the end of Hajj, Islam’s annual pilgrimage to Mecca. For the American Muslim community, Christmas is a challenge, especially for those of us with […]

c. 2006 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) With Christmas still fresh in our minds, American Muslims are looking forward to our own holiday, Eid ul-Adha, a three-day celebration (Jan. 10-12) that marks the end of Hajj, Islam’s annual pilgrimage to Mecca.

For the American Muslim community, Christmas is a challenge, especially for those of us with kids. The monthlong public, private and retail fete _ with lights, carols, Santa, his sleigh and reindeer and elves _ are child heaven. Many parents feel an enormous need to prove that our faith has as much to offer kids, and that our own traditions are as appealing, if not as glamorous, as Christmas.


This year the Muslim community was lucky. Christmas was neatly sandwiched between the two major events of the Islamic calendar _ Ramadan and Hajj. With Ramadan and Eid ul Fitr falling in October, we had a month of fellowship and celebration to buttress the kids’ fortitude just before the November/December holiday deluge. When kids asked why we don’t celebrate Christmas, Muslim parents could point to our own recent time of dinner parties, special foods, holiday sweets, new clothes, and, of course, presents.

And if that didn’t quite satisfy, we could remind them that Hajj and Eid ul-Adha were coming just a couple weeks later. More parties, more new clothes and of course, more presents.

And there’s the rub. The push-pull.

You want Eid to be just as good as Christmas, but … you look at the stress, the holiday rush, the hassle of finding just the right gifts, the self-inflicted pressure to make Christmas perfect for the kids, and shudder to think that Eid could become like that.

You feel the need to compete, but you want to maintain your own authentic traditions, even if they don’t quite measure up. You want Eid to be fun and memorable, without succumbing to the materialism that has become synonymous with Christmas.

On the one hand, you’re delighted that Hallmark is now making Eid cards and that you can mail them with a U.S. Postal Service Eid stamp. You’re excited when you find Indian Princess Barbie and Arabesque building blocks at the mall. In a country where status is judged largely by the strength of one’s pocketbook, retail acknowledgment of Ramadan, Hajj and the two Eids speaks loudly to kids. It shows them that Muslims are part and parcel of the fabric of this country, that we belong, we’re accepted.

But on the other hand, you dread too much retail attention. You worry that consumerism will overshadow the spiritual aspects of Eid the way it has overshadowed the religious side of Christmas.

When you set out your Eid presents, you hope the kids realize that Eid is more about being grateful to God than getting goodies.


You wonder if you would have gotten the kids so many presents if the spectacle of Christmas giving hadn’t just upped the ante.

You wonder if the need to measure up is leading you into the eager arms of Big Retail.

And you wish that the Christian community hadn’t bought quite so fully into market capitalism’s message that more is better.

All along, to make matters worse, you’re second guessing yourself. When you hang lights, as Muslims in many countries do during Ramadan, you wonder if the kids will think that you are trying to copy Christmas, and sometimes you wonder yourself. When you pass out sweets _ a time-honored Ramadan tradition _ you hope the kids don’t think you’re just trying to trump sugar cookies with red and green sprinkles.

You look to the American Jewish community and see the importance of Hanukkah, a relatively minor holiday in other Jewish communities, and wonder if this is a path you want to follow. It’s great to be able to say we’ve got it just as good, but not if it means you have to distort your own traditions.

It’s tough to know whether the glitz of all-out materialism will help your kids love Eid, and not envy Christmas. And even if it does, do you really want them to love it because of presents, decorations and conspicuous consumption? Will they appreciate, or even understand, an even-handed approach that balances fun with spirituality?


Clearly there is no one answer that fits all children or all families. It’s at best a balancing act in which you always feel a bit off-kilter _ pulled one way and repelled the other by the allure of consumerism.

(Pamela K. Taylor is co-chair of the Progressive Muslim Union, and acting director of the Islamic Writers Alliance.)

KRE/JL END TAYLOR

Editors: To obtain a photo of Pamela K. Taylor, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug. If searching by subject, designate “exact phrase” for best results.

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