A Challenging yet Joyous Christmas Celebration for Muslim Background Believers in Bangladesh
Christians in Bangladesh love to celebrate this beautiful occasion and they look forward to it.
However, for some believers, it is difficult to celebrate openly, especially in their families and communities. Doing so will only attract pressure and persecution. So, for some of the believers, no matter how much they love the occasion, they cannot celebrate Christmas as other Christians celebrate. But this occasion serves as an opportunity for Christians to be reminded of Christ, the reason for the season and our only source of joy, peace and love. For this purpose, Open Doors’ local partners in Bangladesh host an annual Christmas gathering for Muslim background believers who cannot celebrate at their homes and churches for the fear of persecution.
A Muslim background believers Christmas gathering was conducted on December 9th in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. It was a very festive event where around 113 families gathered and joined the celebration. Due to family or community pressure, it won’t be possible for them to freely celebrate Christmas in their homes or villages, thus there was a need for them to gather in the city away from the prying eyes of their neighbours and communities. The families invited were from different parts of the country and many of them needed to make a long journey to attend the celebration. Some of them even had to travel the whole night by bus or train to reach the location.
This year’s gathering came with so many challenges. Due to an unexpected political crisis, the participants were faced with transport restrictions. The organizers faced some frustrations too and even felt hopeless because of these challenges. However, nothing could stop the believers from coming for the celebration. They persevered and managed to overcome every obstacle and reached the location on time!
Despite their tiredness from the difficult journey, their hearts were still filled with expectation and excitement! They were just unstoppable and their perseverance was unbelievable. They took risks with their family because they found it very important to celebrate Christmas with many brothers and sisters together in the Lord.
“I can do everything for the Lord. I am ready to face any sort of situation for my Lord. If one way is stopped then I will find another way out to come here,” said Safiq one of the participants who came with his wife and son from the remote area of the northern part of Bangladesh.
Another participant, Fozol who came together with his wife and 8 years old son, said, “We had to change our transport again and again and it cost more than our normal travel. But we do not feel tired, we were determined that we must go to celebrate Christmas and for this, I am ready to pay any cost.”
It was amazing to indeed witness these Muslim background believers with their passion for the Lord and love for people. Until one sees it, it is difficult to imagine how much they are passionate for the Lord and celebrate with other believers.
However, though many may have already overcome the difficulties in coming for the celebration, there are still a few who will continue to face challenges as they go back to their hometown. Hanif and Kanchon are new believers who came from the northern part of Bangladesh. On the last day of the celebration, they received a phone call from their house owner who is a Muslim. He came to know that Hanif has converted to Christianity and is now in the city to participate in the Christmas gathering. He became extremely angry and threw out all of Hanif’s belongings and asked him not to return to his home again. It was terrible news for the couple. They returned home with fear and panic of more persecution.
However, most of the participants enjoyed the day with their families. Many of them were able to establish friendships with other believers who shared the same experiences even if they came from different parts of the country. Some families came for the first time and they were excited to be a part of this large gathering. There were a total of 400 participants who did all the activities together such as worship, studying the Bible, meals and games too! This sort of celebration and mingling with a huge number of people was incredible for most of them.
“This is the first time I participated in such kind of big gathering to celebrate Christmas with my family and with many other people from different parts of the country. I am very excited and would like to come again and again to such a celebration. I love the message about Christmas and the Lord Jesus Christ. I love to explore and know about stories from others who are from other parts of the country but have the same situation as us. I have built good relationships with some of the girls of my age and we will continue our relationship forever. This is the best Christmas celebration in my life!” said a young female Muslim background believer, Eshe, who is 18. She travelled from the southwest part of the country.
Another first-time participant from the southwest part of the country Ritu, 25, said that “I have experienced very good things here. I have never seen such a big number of Muslim background believers before. This encouraged me a lot and strengthened me mentally. We have little opportunity to celebrate Christmas at home and feel fear to celebrate openly since we are converted believers. But here openly we can worship, speak, play; we can celebrate Christmas freely with open hearts.”
All of the participants who were asked about their experience expressed the same sentiment, “I feel free to celebrate Christmas here, no fear, no panic. I will come again next year!”
Children’s Christmas
The children enjoyed this Christmas celebration the most. They didn’t have any restrictions but were just freely playing, singing, dancing, and eating. They did not have worries like their parents and they just enjoyed every activity.
A young participant Asha, 10, said that “I love Merry Christmas. I love playing with balloons with my friends. I have many friends, we play together, and sing songs together.”
Asha’s friend Moriam, 8, said, “I am very happy here. I love saying Merry Christmas. I love carols. I enjoy Christmas a lot.”
Praise God for the opportunity given by Open Doors local partners in gathering many Muslim background believers to freely celebrate and remember the birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. This is just a portion of believers reached through the program but in reality, there are still thousands of Muslim background believers in the country who cannot celebrate Christmas because of fear and persecution. Bangladesh believers are still fighting for the right to celebrate Christmas freely. Please pray for our Bangladesh believers that one day, they will be able to freely worship and celebrate without fear from their families or communities.
