Dead Cant Rant

Via normblog, the website Ask-Imam.com has rendered a final decision on the celebration of Thanksgiving by Muslims:

We have studied the background of Thanksgiving day- to express gratitude to
the favours of the natives of the 16th century. IN principal to express
gratefulness and gratitude for favours rendered is encouraged. However,
Thanksgiving being a national holiday express its salient position in the
American culture, which has many unislamic values and principles.
Celebrating Thanksgiving purposefully or subordinately is an expression of
accepting the general American Culture. It is not celebrated independent of
the American Culture. In view of the above it is not permissible to
celebrate Thanksgiving Day.

and Allah Ta’ala Knows Best

Mufti Ebrahim Desai
FATWA DEPT.

Notice how the “Imam” totally misses the point about Thanksgiving: it’s not about “gratitude to
the favours of the natives of the 16th century”, it’s about gratitude to God for providing abundance to the Pilgrims who came to this land to escape religious persecution and who endured mass starvation and hardship during the winter immediately after arrival, and as a result became the unofficial founders of what is today the United States of America.