Countries That Ban Christmas Celebration

As Christian is one of the religion with largest population in the world, a lot of countries
celebrate Christmas not only as a religious celebration but also consider Christmas as a part
of nation’s culture itself. US and UK are the instances because these two are known with
most Christian population. But in countries like Tajikistan, Brunei Darussalam, Saudi Arabia,
North Korea and Somalia, Christmas celebration is openly prohibited due to several reasons.

Tajikistan

Tajikistan is a former fraction Soviet Union with majority of Muslim population. Their
Ministry of Education has issued a decree about the prohibition of Christmas tree
installation including logged tree and artificial tree both in schools and universities. Despite
of its secular ideology, Tajikistan is still influenced between Orthodox Christian from Russia
and non religion or communism from Soviet era that this matter sparked controversy and
incident at several occasions within religion excuse. On New Year’s eve at 2011, a man
with Santa Clause costume stabbed to death as this incident happened only a few days
before the prominent clerics in the country ordered muslims to not partake in Christmas
and New Year’s holiday. At 2013 and 2014, men with zombie and vampire costumes were
arrested followed by prohibition from its government to celebrate Halloween.

Brunei Darussalam

Released on December 27 2014, the statement claims about prohibition for any restaurants
and ventures owned by Muslims and non-Muslims for showing Christmas decorations and
dressing up as Santa Claus. Brunei’s Ministry of Religious Affairs reminded that "Muslims
shall not follow celebrations unrelated to Islam that may lead to tasyabbuh, or imitation.
This is not available in the teachings of Islam. Even so, this prohibition does not necessarily
make non-Muslims can not celebrate Christmas in a country that carries the Sharia law.
According to the Mufti Fatwa of Brunei Darussalam (Siri 03/2005), non-Muslims in the
country are welcome to celebrate Christmas and other religious events but it must be
conducted within their respective communities and not openly celebrated to Muslims.

Saudi Arabia

With over one million Christians in Arabia celebrate Christmas in private and residential
places, Saudi law stipulates that only Islam can be practiced in the public sphere, so there
are no other churches, temples or religious houses in Arabia other than the mosque. The
splendor of Christmas is celebrated in the homes of non-Muslims, though decorations and
Christmas decorations are usually placed inside an enclosed space.
North Korea

North Korean government tightly controls information about religious holidays. Although
the North Korean constitution guarantees the freedom of religion to all its citizens, in fact,
this condition is not generally applied. North Koreans who are caught celebrating Christmas
can be thrown into prison. North Korean authorities believe that church services will help
tens of thousands of North Korean civillian to defect to China. According to a report from
the US Ministry of Internal Affairs, there were about 13,000 Christian population in the
North in 2001. When Christmas arrived, North Korea oftenly launched a condemnation to
South Korea which deliberately lit a giant Christmas tree in the border region.

Somalia

The Director of the Somali Ministry of Religion, Sheikh Mohamed Kheyrow, said the
Christmas celebrations were not related to Islam. "Christmas is not going to be celebrated in
Somalia for two reasons: Most of Somalis are Muslim and there is no Christian community
here. Christmas is for Christians and not for Muslims," said Abdifatah Halane, a spokesman
for Mogadishu Mayor on December 23 2015. The authorities also said that the Christmas
celebration is also likely to be a magnet for al-Shabaab Islamic militant attacks.