I wish a joyous and beautiful Paschal season to all those who are celebrating the Resurrection of Christ tonight. Predictably, Hades is angered: “Muslim forbidding his non-Muslim wife to celebrate her religious festivals,” from Islam Q and A (scroll down):
If a Christian girl agrees to marry a Muslim man, then she should be aware of a number of things:
1 — The wife is commanded to obey her husband, so long as it does not involve sin. No differentiation is made between a Muslim wife and a non-Muslim wife with regard to that. If her husband tells her to do something that is not a sin, then she is obliged to obey him. Allaah has given this right to men, because they are in charge of the family and are responsible for it, and family life cannot run smoothly unless one of its members is in charge and is listened to and obeyed. But this does not mean that the man is allowed to dominate or exploit this right in order to mistreat his wife and children, rather he must strive hard to do a good job, to offer sincere advice and consult with them.
But life is not free of matters that need to be settled in a decisive manner. The Christian girl needs to understand this principle before she goes ahead and marries a Muslim.
2 — Islam allows marriage to a Christian or Jewish woman, i.e., it permits a man to marry such a woman whilst she continues to follow her religion. The husband does not have the right to force her to become Muslim, or to stop her worshipping in her own way. But he does have the right to forbid her to go out of the house, even if she is going to go out to go to church, because she is commanded to obey him. He also has the right to forbid her to commit evil openly in the house, such as setting up statues or ringing bells.
That also includes celebrating innovated festivals, such as Easter, because that is an evil action according to Islam, in two ways. It is an innovation for which there is no basis, like celebrating the birthday of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) and Mother’s Day, and it also includes false beliefs, namely the belief that the Messiah was killed and crucified, then placed in the grave, then rose from it.
The truth is that Eesa (Jesus — peace be upon him) was not killed or crucified, rather that he was taken up to heaven alive.
That is the claim contained in Qur’an 4:157, which was, of course, written nearly 700 years and possibly more than that after the events it claims to record more correctly than records published hundreds of years before.