Christmas as a national holiday is a legacy of apartheid? The CIA World Factbook on South Africa says that Christians make up 68% percent of the South African population; Muslims make up two percent. If Christmas is cancelled to avoid offending that two percent, it will become a legacy not of apartheid but of dhimmitude. From South Africa’s Sunday Times, with thanks to Ali Dashti:
SOUTH Africa’s 14 public holidays are up for review and “not one will be regarded as sacred”.
This warning was given yesterday by Rufus Malatjie, chief director of legal services at the Department of Home Affairs, who heads a government task team evaluating the number of public holidays.
He said Christmas Day, Easter and Youth Day, on which the June 16 1976 Soweto uprising is commemorated, were also not exempt.
“I cannot guarantee that we will still have the Christmas Day holiday. At this stage anything is possible. There is no holiday that is regarded as being sacred. They are all being looked at,” he said.
The team was appointed by Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the former Minister of Home Affairs, last November after complaints from the public that the South African calendar discriminated against religious groups and certain sectors of the population….
Sheikh Achmat Sedick, secretary-general of the Muslim Judicial Council, said his group had made a submission and would expect to be involved in further consideration of holidays.
He said Christmas, Easter and other religious holidays were legacies of apartheid and mainly reflected the priorities of the Dutch Reformed Church, to which most white leaders had belonged.
“Christmas and Easter were always there. If you want to retain them, then at least give us some consideration as well as all the other religions, which will be a logistical nightmare,” he said.
“Maybe they just have to squash this whole idea of making the existing Christmas a national holiday, but I don’t know… How are they going to accommodate the Jews, the Hindus, the Buddhists, the Rastafarians?”
Obviously that would be a logistical nightmare. Why must these populations be accomodated with national holidays at all? Why can’t the majority reflect its culture in its observances? Why must this be considered an affront to others there?