When following them into a lizard hole is NOT an alternative

I received a flyer in my email inbox last week notifying me there is an October fest gathering for children at a mosque. The day? October 31. The colour of the flyer? Orange. Some of the activities? Games, sports, giving out candy.

What comes to mind? A usual kids’ festival at a mosque… or Halloween?

It’s interesting to see the different ways Muslims deal with non-Islamic holidays. No doubt, this is a real problem because Muslim children are exposed to it, whether we like it or not. You can’t just pretend the problem doesn’t exist.

But, what’s the best way to deal with it?

Before I tell you, watch this commercial:

Some say, you must have an alternative. Others say you must teach your children that haram is haram and avoid the event altogether. I say, both.

I wholeheartedly agree with filling the gap. Your child doesn’t live in a vacuum. You can’t expect your child to go to school and avoid being teased because he’s the only kid in the class that doesn’t have candy or doesn’t have a scary story the night before about his trick-or-treating… BUT

… and this is a big BUT…

What’s worse is to allow your child to believe that he can participate in a haram event by playing with the words a little and just changing the name.

It’s not Halloween, it’s October Fest.
It’s not trick-or-treating, it’s getting loads of candy.
It’s not dressing up in costumes, it’s face painting.

Is this the method the prophet (peace be upon him) taught us? Did he celebrate the holidays of the Jews and Christians but change the name around? Or did he (pbuh) advise us to do the OPPOSITE to the point that the Jews said, “Muhammed does the opposite of every little thing we do.”

Why do Muslims have to always be followers? When are we going to get rid of our inferiority complex and let others follow us?

Narrated Abu Sa’id al-Khudri, the Prophet (pbuh) said, “You will follow the ways of those nations who were before you, span by span and cubit by cubit (i.e., inch by inch) so much so that even if they entered a hole of a mastigure [lizard], you would follow them.” We said, “O Allah’s Apostle! (Do you mean) the Jews and the Christians?” He said, “Whom else?”

If you really think that children will not connect “alternative” activities to the actual event, think again. If this doesn’t give the message that Muslims are inferior and we need to be followers, think once more.