When German Chancellor Angela Merkel commented that Islam was just as much a part of Germany as Christianity and Judaism, she was wrong, apparently. Until it got caught, the European Union planned to distribute more than 3 million school calendars that included dates for the celebration of Muslim and Jewish holidays, but omitted Christian feasts. So for the EU, Islam was more a part of Germany and Europe than Christianity.
But this week, the EU admitted its mistake and withdrew the calendars. The obvious question is how an omission of that magnitude was made.
The anti-Christian trouble began when the EU — innocently, the continental bureaucracy’s consumer affairs department says — left the Faith off the "Europa Diary," a tool for secondary students’ homework. That inspired the ire of French politician Christine Boutin, who blogged about the insult on Jan. 11. The calendar, she wrote, omits the “the religion practiced or recognized as forming the cultural assembly of our ‘old’ continent.”
Christianity, she wrote, has "fallen into the limbo of collective ignorance."
She also observed that the EU dumped major Christian feast days such as Christmas and Easter, but honored Sikh Baisakhi-Day, the Jewish Yom Kippur holiday, and the Muslim holiday Aïd-el-Kebir.
Understandably, the Christian Democratic Party in France was unhappy with the EU has well. It filed a petition to stop distribution of the calendars.
The petition notes three obvious truths about the Christian faith in Europe. It says the Faith’s role in Europe’s birth and formation is "undeniable historical fact," that Christianity is the premier faith of Europe, and that students must learn about the foundation of their society.
• The role of Christianity in the European construction is an undeniable and historical fact. How can this diary pretend to inform teenagers about the EU, removing all references to christianism, negating a religion that contributed so much to its construction and unity?
• Christianity is the first religion in Europe. This oversight offends many people. The denial of something so important for them, the oversight of the values and beliefs they share, is intolerable.
• Christianity is not only a religious factor, but also a cultural and founder factor of the history and identity of many European [nations]. Christian holidays, in particular Christmas and Easter, absent in this diary, are celebrated through all Europe by many persons, even non-Christians.
Apparently, these truths were lost on the publishers of the Europa Diary. So the Eurocrats published a calendar that did not mention Christmas and Easter, the two most significant events in human history.
But it didn’t take long for the supranational agency to backpeddle once the omission went viral.
The EU will correct the anti-Christian calendar. “There was never an intention to discriminate against the Christian religion in this publication,” the EU’s consumer affairs department stated.
Photo: This U.S. postage stamp commemorates the two major Islamic festivals, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.
