Re: What to do if you don’t want your kids celebrating Halloween?
I don’t think it will be that big a deal for the child as you think. I have nothing against dressing up for Halloween n trick or treating…however something has always come up on the 31st for past few years…and kids barely even cared. Both my kids schools didn’t allow costumes…so not a big issue.
Re: What to do if you don’t want your kids celebrating Halloween?
^^ exactly, all the schools I have taught at don’t allow costumes or candy. Teachers don’t plan lessons on Halloween, lessons are planned on Fall theme. Also, I have had lot of non Muslim children who did not dress up or go trick or treating. I don’t think it is a huge deal, educate your children and they will understand.
Re: What to do if you don’t want your kids celebrating Halloween?
do you say the same thing when someone’s kids want girl/boyfriends, dress slutty or drink booze??? all of that is pretty common in western countries too…
Do me a favor and try not to do the typical over dramatic exaggeration bit you usually do.
I’m talking about the gora-phobia I see so much that makes no sense to me.
Re: What to do if you don’t want your kids celebrating Halloween?
This whole point of yours is off topic but I gotta ask: Have you been to Pakistan lately?? All of the above listed things happen there, too. It ain’t no safe haven for raising kids either.
and I have to agree with reha on the gora phobia.
Re: What to do if you don’t want your kids celebrating Halloween?
Actually schools in Pakistan are celebrating halloween, easter, christmas, valentines, etc.
Re: What to do if you don’t want your kids celebrating Halloween?
I dont know about others , but I can give my perspective only . When I say I dont want to celebrate pagan events , its NOT gora-phobia…
Its actually trying to stay within the boundaries that Islam is teaching us. I guess getting to know those boundaries is important for every muslim so that they are better able to judge what they want to do and what they need to stay away from.
For example, if a Gora wants to celebrate Eid, by all means, I have no issues celebrating with them. If , however , I was gora-phobic, I wouldnt be celebrating Eid with them !
Similarly, I dont see any issues with Gora’s way of celebrating Mother’s day or Father’s day .. I do it , coz there is nothing in this event that goes majorly against Islamic teachings ..
Please try and see the difference, when a muslim is trying to make improvements in their life and say they are against and event or certain actions attributed to that event , there are logical reasons behind it , which some may related with because they have a better understand of the religion , some others might feel they dont understand it , because they havnt studied Islam in depth maybe ..
However, if one needs to negate a point in a discussion, since most people here are saying they are not celebrating Halloween or Xmas for Islamic reasons, why not bring a logical Islamic reasoning behind why they SHOULD be celebrating it .. that way, the phobia thing wont come in at all .. because at the end of the day, I wouldnt be looking after my gora neighbours , nor sending them food occasionally, nor inviting them over for tea , if I was gora -Phobic ..
Re: What to do if you don’t want your kids celebrating Halloween?
Not celebrating halloween= gora phobia!
seriously GS never ceases to amaze me!!!
Re: What to do if you don’t want your kids celebrating Halloween?
and it never ceases to amaze me how people take the opinions of certain individuals and apply them to GS as if GS is a living breathing entity with the ability to have a view.
Re: What to do if you don’t want your kids celebrating Halloween?
People on GS are real.
Anyways it is always good to be amazed and/or amused,online or real life…
Re: What to do if you don’t want your kids celebrating Halloween?
I don’t believe that I suggested they are not. If that’s what you understood then I didn’t do a good job of conveying what I meant.
And yes…it is always good to be amused. That’s a great state of mind. I just don’t know if you want that amusement to be at the expense of someone’s or something’s reputation.
Re: What to do if you don’t want your kids celebrating Halloween?
and i haven’t said that either…do you see me advocating ‘‘not having kids’’ for so and so reason anywhere?
just trying to point out absurdity of the statement ''why have kids at xyz place"… i mentioned the west because the poster talked about not having kids in the west…
Re: What to do if you don’t want your kids celebrating Halloween?
SGC, you took the words out of my mouth :k: On my last visit to lahore I was invited to a ‘bachelorette’ party, As I sat in the corner with a can of red bull while the rest, yes the entire bridal party went nuts after having a few ‘shots’ and no those were not ‘rooh afza’ shots, and whereas I was made fun of ‘coming from north america’ and not joining in the ‘party’?
And please I don’t want to debate the stats of people drinking less vs western countries, the point is it still happens in pakistan too like any other countries regardless. We need to look at ‘ourselves’ before we judge any gora/kala/peela
Sorry to derail the topic, back to celebrating/not celebrating halloween.
Re: What to do if you don’t want your kids celebrating Halloween?
Though I wouldn’t deny what you said, just want to add that there are schools which do not celebrate/ promote any of this stuff.
As for topic at hand, I’ve lived in Germany, UK and in Pakistan and my kids have never celebrated such stuff, alhamdulillah. I have always tried explaining and alhamdulillah that it works.
My kids always asked us if a certain sweet/ candy they received from someone was halal to consume and now they are old enough to check themselves. There are challenges beyond debating just dressing up and getting candies or not, in my humble opinion.
Re: What to do if you don’t want your kids celebrating Halloween?
This…!!
Re: What to do if you don’t want your kids celebrating Halloween?
Honestly, the origins of Halloween and the modern day version are greatly open to interpertation. And this is where I respectfully disagree with you. Halloween is NOT a religious based event. It is not endorsing tenants of Christianity..nor by participating in trick or treat activities does one commit shirk. I completely understand and respect yours or anyone else’s decision to not participate in it (as others have pointed out, many christian people do not as well), but I just don’t understand (and I’m not referring to you in particular so please don’t get offended!) how people are so against halloween but will still celebrate a birthday, mayoon, mehndi, dholki, basant etc when theire is clearly NO mention or endorsement of it in Islam.
It seems we all pick and choose according to our comfort levels I guess. 
Re: What to do if you don’t want your kids celebrating Halloween?
Hi khatti,
Firstly, Halloween has its roots in religion , which is why many Christians ( practising ) dont celebrate it either , as you have also mentioned. Now there is a class out there who do it as a cultural thing , but they cant ignore the fact that neither have they come up with any proof that this is not a religiously rooted occasion that they celebrate.
Secondly, I agree with you that many people who are against such events do mendi and all those other things you mentioned with the exception of birthdays .. I class those events wrong as well , hence why Alhumdullillah we dont do it in my family. and neither do i plan to do them at my sons wedding .. at my wedding , my inlaws were adamant we have a mendi , but we took a stand , caused alot of furore and I was forced into wearing a peela jora , but we didnt have any music or dolki , we got loads of mendi cones and did mendi on all the girls hands, men of the family were sat outside the house having tea ..
As far as birthday’s are concerned , its a very individual thing, I have classed in several places that even the many sheikh’s and ulema in Islam are not against the individual recognition of the birthday , as long as its not extravagantly throwing of parties and showing off . but within limits, so far, not many renouned ulema have issues with it. Though they are dead against celebration of prophet SAW or any other prophet’s birthdays because it is taken as a collective event which turns into biddah.
No we do not pick and choose from religion, but the fact is , we are all varied level of followers of islam , some more apt at it, some who are still a bit further down the lane. At the end of the day we are all trying to make improvements in our own way and as per Allah’s guidance , whome he blesses shall take the right path .. Lets not belittle people who might be doing wrong in something else , but instead we should recognize that at least they are getting closer to Allah by improving in a certain element of their life.
When discussions are made here, at least , I do not do so with the intention of telling others , oh look you are committing the largest gunah and you are going to hell fire .. thats not my call nor my judgement. I believe alot of people here discuss their view point so as to add to the knowledge of others , while learning from them , in a hope that we will all better ourselves in one way or the other. Time and again , I have realized through these discussions that I am wrong and I improve in those areas because someone’s logic hit home and gave me a better understanding of an issue .. but then again were times, when alot of people disagreed with me but couldnt give me the logic to prove that i am wrong and eventually it strengthened my faith on what I am following .
I hope this makes sense .
Re: What to do if you don’t want your kids celebrating Halloween?
Marking Birthdays are as Christian as Halloween! From celebrating birthday of Christ (not necessarily in Christmas fashion) to marking birthday’s of popular saints or Kings, it’s all part of medieval European Christian practices. How can anyone say that celebrating one Christian inspired event is all good and fine if done in moderation but other one isn’t? This is called picking and choosing which *brand *of religion you follow.
P.S I do not care about Halloween at all nor the gora community that lives around here. It’s simply not a all big in your face merchandise frenzy opportunity in Britain or at least where I live.
Re: What to do if you don’t want your kids celebrating Halloween?
hey who knows probably thats how it all started many generations ago.. we took it from hindus when we used to live together just so no one calls it “hindu phobia” and next thing you know, we are so in it that now even the mere suggestion of not celebrating mehndi mayun etc is like “huh, what will people say” or “we are becoming too Islamic” because it’s a part and parcel of our culture now! At this rate, may be 100 years later, halloween would become a part of our culture too!
oh well, we have so many other issues while raising kids not just in west but anywhere that celebrating halloween takes the back seat in my priority list, an important seat nonetheless!
Re: What to do if you don’t want your kids celebrating Halloween?
Jolie,
Birthday doesnt have pagan roots, Halloween does…
Birthday isnt a religious event, Christ’s birthday is.
One’s birthday is an individual thing, a prophets birthday becomes an event where people start thinking its going to get them goody points if they celebrate it .
Hope you get the point of why its not about Christian v/s Islam but rather about following the teachings of Islam !