It is the season for us to have an open house

WHEN I was growing up on the Cape Flats years ago, it was not unusual to find Christians and Muslims celebrating religious holidays which they were not expected to mark. Christmas, for instance, was not seen as a Christian holiday, but rather as a way of celebrating family unity, irrespective of relatives’ religious backgrounds.

To this day, it is not unusual to see many Muslim people rushing around at the shops, making sure they have their Christmas supplies.

Like many people on the Cape Flats, my family has always been a mix of Christians and Muslims, and my friendship circles have always included people from different religious persuasions, or none.

Some of my earliest childhood memories include going door to door in the Athlone area at Christmas and Eid (or Labarang as we called it), extending our greetings in return for money or sweets and cakes. Obviously, we preferred money because we could decide how to use it, but there is also a limit to how many cakes or sweets anyone can eat.

I bought a little tricycle when I was 6 or 7 with money I had “earned” in this way. My tricycle was eventually stolen by a cousin, but that’s another story.

After we moved to Hanover Park, I became part of a small group of friends who spent most of our time together. This meant we attended Muslim school and Sunday school together, attended a Christian youth group on a Wednesday night and a Muslim religious service on Thursday night.

We never saw each other as Muslim or Christian.

Later in life, I would develop problems with religion once the damage done over the years, and in many countries, in the name of religion was brought to my attention. I turned my back on most religious celebrations. I refused to celebrate anything that could be seen as supporting the harm done by religious zealots whose sole intention was to impose their beliefs on people.

Part of my attitude to religion was because of being introduced, during the Struggle, to the readings of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, and others, and being exposed to the notion that religion was “the opium of the masses”.

Taking the train from Kapteinsklip station in Mitchells Plain to Cape Town every morning and experiencing the influence of lay preachers on the trains, convinced me this notion was correct. We were very serious about many issues in the Struggle days, and in many cases there was only black or white, and no grey.

Of course, as one gets older one warms to the idea of holidays and celebrations, and spending time with the family.

I still think there are unscrupulous people who are using religion as some form of drug to cheat poor people out of their money – and here one has to think about the many pastors who spray Doom on their congregants, or convince them to ingest Dettol, or eat snakes or grass. These pastors are enough reason for most people to turn their backs on religion.

But, over the years I have also been exposed to people who have shown me the good work that can be done by people with religious conviction. People who come to mind include Dr Allan Boesak and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who led the sanctions campaign against apartheid South Africa, which played a huge role in changing the minds of the Nationalist government that until then appeared committed to apartheid. Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, as the secretary of the SA Catholic Bishops Conference, made sure money was channelled to anti-apartheid organisations; Ebrahim Rasool and Moulana (now Professor) Farid Esack led Muslims into the anti-apartheid movement, the United Democratic Front.

There are many others with whom I have interacted over the years who impressed me with their commitment to religion and basic human rights.

After interacting with such people, I realised I could not let my view of religion be determined by zealots and extremists, but should rather take my cue from people who embrace the beauty of life and who respect humanity.

This is why at Christmas time my house becomes virtually an open house for people who might not be lucky enough to be with their relatives, or might feel the need to be with a family. It is not so much about celebrating a Christian holiday, but rather about celebrating what is good about religion and about people, in general.

After all, most religions celebrate humanity – and the decent thing to do, if you embrace humanity, is to find ways of making sure others always have reason to celebrate.

Merry Christmas, everyone.