There is a current ad on the BBC for their Muslims living together in some house
It includes a black man saying "I am black and a Muslim, everywhere I go somebody hates me"

There is clearly some evidence to support religions (i.e Jesus almost certainly existed) but the rest is embellished or made up (i.e he wasn't the son of God). And there is no God, probably.

Religions are also based on some real-life events which did happen.

It's really not very tolerant to be telling people they can't have a stand where they aren't causing any trouble, though the remark about not having enough seasonal decorations might be closer to the truth than anything else. Even the big poster on the side of the stand was a significant quote contradicting a lot of criticisms people make. This was a stand by a forward-thinking tolerant group who are entirely undeserving of this treatment.

And in any case IIRC in a previous year Mrs Citizen Khan said they were doing Christmas and since that's as close to a documentary as any of us get, it must therefore be completely representative and we should take on board the idea that even Sparkhill might have the odd bit of tinsel.


And to paraphrase somewhat, 'history is written by the guy in the pulpit'.


This bit would be 'the historical context/framework around which things were said to have happened', and I'm hoping this is sufficiently non-committal in either direction to work

OK, I'll try again. Broadly speaking, religions believe that everything in their holy books is a matter of fact, i.e. it actually happened. Now some of that may be historically verifiable, but the existence of a deity can't, as it is purely a matter of faith and can neither be proved nor disproved. So there can't be any actual evidence that "Islam is false", as you were suggesting.

That's your belief and you're entitled to it but if you wanted to go into an event or building promoting one belief and start promoting something else then i'd probably take a bit more to back up your belief than that.

Their is plenty to research before you get to deities.

Why would you want to do that, other than to cause friction?

Well, that was just an example of the impossibility of disproving alleged supernatural events. What kind of evidence were you thinking of?

Because by definition by going into a Christmas event and promoting an alternative, the muslims on that stool were saying they were right and Christianity was wrong.

A Christmas event, yes. A Christian event, no.

Stall.

Sorry.

"Stool" is funnier, though.

I thought they were just there to provide information about the Muslim faith? In any case this was a Christmas event, not a specifically Christian one. I doubt that you had to be a Christian to have a stall there!

As i said times, places, events customs.
An example would be "Islam: The untold story" by Tom Holland.

And Muslims don't celebrate Christmas because they don't believe in it. Join up the dots.

Fine for a magazine article perhaps, but not really appropriate for a Christmas market stall.

You don't have to believe in the religious aspect to join in what is a largely secular celebration.

That depends on the rules of the people running such events.

Looks like they'd been allowed to set up by the organisers- the (incredibly vague) story we've been given suggests that they were only asked to leave after some of the locals got pissed off.

Which as i've said is understandable.

So getting hysterically pissed off is a good enough reason? Great. This Christmas I'm gonna get pissed off everytime Jesus is mentioned, just 'cause, well, who cares? Religion and stuff. How dare those Christians muscle in on my pagan celebration.

Ever so slightly (insanely) ridiculous, but, apparently, understandable.

I'm not sure its ridiculous to make decisions about what you wan't going on at your own event.

But didn't the organisers make the decision to allow the stall in the first place?

I thought it was the public who chucked a hissy, rather than the organisers?

That's not strictly true. The people this is about, the Ahmadiyya, see Mary and Jesus as very important figures. While they don't celebrate in the same way as Christians they are happy to participate and wish Christians a merry Christians. I doubt they were there for a fight as I said earlier.

These people are already persecuted by mainstream Islam. Its a shame this happened by supposed tolerant Christians.