Know Your Saints: Santa and the Muslims‏

Santiago, Matamoros, y Cierra Espana!

Regarding Steve Benson's Santa cartoon "Muslims are All Right" (12/10/15):

HOLY MACARONI!   Doesn't Steve realize that many Muslims might be offended and/or horrified that Steve has invoked a saint, and a Christian one at that, to intervene on their behalf.

Anachronism:  Santa is avatar of Saint Nicholas who died in 343 AD long before there were any Muslims.   He never thought about Muslims one way or the other.

Avatars:  I might believe in avatars, but Steve Benson has made it abundantly clear he doesn't believe in avatars or saints,   so he shouldn't be making up things about what Saint Nicholas's avatar thinks one way or the other.   Unless this is a revelation that he's started having religious visions.   I suppose anything's possible.

Muslims and Saint Nicholas:   Saint Nicholas is recognized as a saint by nearly all Christians, even many Presbyterians.   As far as Muslims are concerned, he's problematic, especially when treated as venerated saint, and especially for strict Muslims.   The issue of saints is part of the Sunni-Shia divide.   Don't get caught on the wrong side of it if you value your head.

Saint Nicholas and Muslims:  Saint Nicholas is famous for leaving anonymous gifts for poor children.    He is also famous for being a strict conservative theologian and a father of the Nicene Creed.  He famously punched the heretic Arius in the face during the Council of Niceaea.   Since Turkey's repressive Muslim conquerors prohibited celebrating the Divine Liturgy at the site of Saint Nicholas's episcopal see at Myra, Turkey, for centuries until 2007, saying the saint (or his avatar) would be magnanimous with respect to Muslims is problematic.

America is one of the few places in the world where religious tolerance is a reality.   Even though I'm named for Spain's patron,   St. James the Moor slayer, it never occurred to me to ask about my Arab roommate's or my Turkish/Iranian lead system analyst's religion, although my roommate liked to read some guy name Kahlil Gibran and was pretty vocal about saying don't believe everything the New York Times says about Palestinians.  That last part when I was young was like hearing Steve Benson say the Bible is a fairy tale.   I was a whole lot more worried about Vietnam than if my buddy was some kind of crypto-extremist.   When I hit Arizona I revered my colleague Ali because he was a rock of stability and integrity on a big project where we had to herd too many people who were knuckleheads.  If you want to get a job done hire Muslims named Ali and programmers from BYU.

As far as the Muslim world is concerned, my experience working in Saudi Arabia years ago wasn't bad at all (just quiet and boring).  They didn't hold my name against me (but then it didn't say Santiago instead of James on my passport) and it was a lot safer place than the US.   Zero gun violence.   You will not run into anyone that's "strapped".   And no women  drivers talking on their cell phones!    All the Saudi's were exceedingly polite.   On the other hand if you're a Catholic and need to go to confession or communion, or need a beer, you're pretty much out of luck.   

I wouldn't go near Saudi Arabia today, though.  It's a very different world and difficult to figure out who's still polite and who's not.