The new battles over religion’s role in holiday celebrations come from more than two decades after the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups began going to court to try to require municipalities to remove Nativity scenes and other religious displays from public property. The ACLU argued that such religious symbols violated the First Amendment’s ban on government-endorsed religion. (USA TODAY, December 21, 2004)

Till very recently, I didn’t realize it was such a big deal. Some people greeted me "Merry Christmas" and many others “Happy Holidays". I thought both were the same thing. Happy Holidays included Merry Christmas also. But, oh boy! Was I wrong?

Christian sensibilities are hurt if Christmas greetings are not made specific. I didn’t realize it because many of my colleagues greeted me Happy Holidays. Now I think they greeted me like that because they knew I was not Christian. I greeted them sometime by saying Happy Holidays, sometime Merry Christmas, and again sometimes mixing it up by saying Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year. To me every way of greeting was all the same; it meant good.

Then I heard a discussion on the TV and came to understand that it indeed was a big deal with many Christians who preferred the greetings of Merry Christmas. Many liberals and atheists insisted on Happy Holidays. History plays in favor of the (fundamental) Christians because the argument goes that even though the US has a secular constitution, the majority of the population is historically Christian. The founding fathers were Christians and they knew what they were doing when they set aside Christmas holidays. Religion does not fail to muddle things up in every which way. It always and invariably divides.

When we were new immigrants in the country and three of my kids went to a Catholic Junior High School, they insisted that we exchanged Christmas gifts, and had a tree with lights in the house. We didn’t object because we believed any occasion for merriment was a happy occasion.

By and by, other things came to my knowledge. There was a prayer hour in the school for the kids in the school chapel and although the non-Christian children could stay away if they wanted, my children went to the chapel nonetheless since they didn’t want to be singled out. This made them think about their own roots. Although we’re not a very practicing family, the kids started differentiating between Christianity and Islam, the religion into which they were born. They became ‘more’ Muslim at heart than I ever was. So much for the prayers in the chapel for the Muslim kids.

Very soon, they lost curiosity about Christianity, Christmas trees, the gifts and the lights. It was again no big deal for me. Let them find their own orientation and equilibrium, I thought. Now this question of greetings started looking me in the face and I started thinking why it should be so important.

I remember on Eid occasions when I didn’t take time off from work (Eid is not an official holiday), many Hindu colleagues and some Christians also, would come to me and greet “Eid Mubarak” or “Happy Eid.” None said happy holiday because it was not a holiday.

I used to greet Hindu friends and colleagues “Happy Diwali” and “Happy Holi,” whatever was appropriate for the occasion. Everything was hunky dory because it was the right thing to do.

It starts going awry when the Christians insist that they should be greeted wit a Merry Christmas rather than happy holidays. They are going after the ‘letter’ than the ‘spirit.’ And they bring history to rub it in. It is by and large not a problem of the immigrants; they are much more flexible than the natives. It has become an issue between the native Christians and the native liberals and non-believers. The immigrants try to assimilate but the more they try, the harder it becomes due to the inborn prejudices and narrow-mindedness of the natives.

Majority of the natives are decent and tolerant people but those obsessed with religion, fail to see anything without their religious blinkers. The immigrants don’t want religion to be shoved down their throats. History or no history, the country is secular and religion and religious symbols, greetings and icons should not be thrust on those who are not Christian by religion. If it is not made a religious issue, it ceases to be an issue. I don’t have any problem in greeting my Christian friends “merry Christmas,” and many others, I believe, wouldn’t have it too until they are coerced into it.

Businesses and commercial establishments are quite another thing. To them, what matters most is money and there is nothing wrong in it. They are in business to make money and as much of it as they possibly can. Christian or no Christian, they will drop merry Christmas without batting an eye if they think this specific greeting will possibly turn away their non-Christian customers. To insist that they should display banners of Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays is infantile. If, on the other hand, they discovered that the loss of the Christian customers due to this issue was greater than the loss of non-Christians, they would readily adopt the slogan of merry Christmas. To them, it is more than less a business consideration.

If they can sanitize the greetings to attract more customers they will do so and the Christian Crusaders have no option but to live with it. If some businesses are operated by Christian-minded people who choose to receive their customers with Merry Christmas, it is their choice and a very welcome one.

According to USA TODAY (December 21, 2004), “In California, a group called the committee to Save Merry Christmas is boycotting Federated Department Stores. The group claims that Federated’s officials, including Macy’s, prohibit clerks from saying “Merry Christmas” and ban the word “Christmas” from the ads and store displays. The retail giant says it has no such policy…the chain aims to “embrace all” the religious and secular holidays that occur in November and December.”

If people greet voluntarily by the salutation of “Merry Christmas,” every thing should be fine. When people start insisting that the greetings should be in one particular (religious) way, a feeling of coercion creeps in. It is true that Christianity is the religion of the majority in the US; even then nobody should enforce his/her religion or religious greetings on others because we’re living in a secular environment.

The Religion of the majority is not the religion of everyone. I do not have any problem, never had one, in greeting my Christian friends with a “Merry Christmas” but if they tell me that is the only way of greeting, I would rather not greet them at all.