Dear Mr Camara, I wish to thank you for your referrence to a very important distinction cited in the Holy Quran between the people of the book or scriptures (Ahlil-kitab) and disbelievers (Al-kafiruun). It is my understanding that the holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) never referred to the Christians and Jews with whom we Muslims believe in the one Al-mighty God (Allah)as Al-Kafiruun or disbelievers but instead he use to refer to them as people of the book as they are known in the holy Quran. I therefore believe that it is a deliberate or uniformed departure by some moslems from the traditions of the holy Prophet Muhammad to consider our Christian and Jewish kinsfolk as disbelievers. From my perspective, current Middle Eastern politics in the form of Western-backed Israeli confiscication of Arab lands and the ensuing animousity between the Arabs who are predominantly moslems on one hand and their western-sponsored Zionist cousins on the other hand could be attributed as largely responsible for the mis-classification of the Jews and Christians as disbelievers by some moslems. The word 'disbeliever' has also been adopted both in the past and contemporary times by some mis-guided muslems and Christians to justify the killings of innocent men, women and children in the name of crusade and Jihad. No wonder President George Bush had to refrain from further use of the sensitive word 'crusade' because of its gruesome reminder to Moslems of the genocide committed against in the past in the name of Christianity against Moslems in history. Although, in their respective true meanings both Jihad and crusade means the quest for righteousness and justice and not the false notions nowadays attributed to their meanings by adventurists. No unjust person can embark upon a jihad or crusade. The fact of the matter is if there were no distortion of the teachings of God revealead through his holy prophets; and Jews, Christians and Moslems were to strive to emulate the conducts of the holy prophets Musa (Moses), Essa (Jesus, and Muhammad (Pbut), our world would be nearly or virually rid of most of the prevailing injustices, hatred, hypocrisy, conflicts, starvation, ignorance, etc of evil. Every innocent life is sacred to God and should not be taken except on the conditions stipulated by the creator of the earth and the heavens, that is none other than Allah. There is nothing that can legitimise injustice against another person, irrespective of his or her faith, ethnicity, gender or skin or eyes colour. In conclusion, i believe that we, moslems can celebrate occasions with Christians or Jews as long as their such occasions are not in contravention of the directives of our faith. If above is the case, we must not also violate the prescribed Islamic teachings, for instance by eating pork or taking intoxicants during our acts of celebrating with them. A moslem cannot for example participate in a Christian occasion of rememberance or celebration about the holy prophet Essa's (Jesus) alledged crucifixion because we do not share this believe with the Christians, as simple as that. As for XMas, which is Essa's birthday occasion, we can exchange gifts with Christians and even eat turkey with them. This is what i learnt on this issue so far but wish to learn more. The yoke of oppression must be shattered! BMK _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>> To view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>