Christmas
is the day billions of Christians world-wide celebrate the birth of Jesus
Christ. According to biblical accords, Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea
more than two thousand years ago.
Christmas
has in the modern era become a universal holiday celebrated by all. The popularity
and commercialization of the yuletide season has recently given rise a rather
intriguing controversy about the nationality of Jesus.
Modern
day Bethlehem is in the Palestinian Administered Territory (PAT). As such, the
Palestinian leadership have for a while now claimed that Jesus was indeed a
Palestinian. The late Yasser Arafat used to openly declare as much as he kicked
off Christmas from Bethlehem every year.
In
2010, Samih Ghanadreh from Nazareth, the author of the book Christianity and its Connection to Islam, told
the host of an interview programme on the PA TV that Arafat labelled Jesus, “the
first Palestinian Shahid (martyr)."
The
Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammed Hussein, preached on PA TV that: "Jesus was
born in this land; he took his first steps in this land and spread his
teachings [of Islam] in this land. He and his mother [Mary], we may say, were
Palestinians par excellence."
This
belief is held by the Arab populace in the region many of whom believe that
Jesus, the Messiah of Israel, was a Palestinian and even a pre-Islam Muslim.
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