Islamic supremacists are inciting their followers to target Christmas markets as part of a wider strategy to force Christians into dhimmi status under shari’a law, with the “blasphemous” doctrine of the incarnation serving as the basis for their calls to action.
That’s the message from Martin Parsons, an Islamic scholar and Middle East expert, who warns that recent efforts to disrupt Christmas celebrations in Europe are almost certainly a response to a specific call from the Islamic State (ISIS) in its weekly newsletter, Al-Naba, of September 18, urging jihadis to attack Jews and Christians in the West.
Unfortunately, closing such markets for security reasons only emboldens Islamic supremacist jihadists—that’s a ‘win’ for them.
While the call to jihad is “a move which appears to have been an attempt to claim credit for the recognition of a Palestinian State due to be announced at the UN by several Western governments a few days later,” the primary provocation against the celebration of Christmas is theological, Parsons, a former aid worker to Afghanistan and founder of The Lindisfarne Centre for the Study of Christian Persecution told Focus on Western Islamism (FWI). Parsons offered this warning after police in Germany and Poland thwarted Islamist plots targeting Christian Christmas markets and as French officials moved to cancel or scale back Christian festivals in response to the threat environment.
Subjugating Christians to Shari’a Law
“Jihadists object to the public celebration of any non-Islamic festivals. Part of the Islamic law which jihadists wish to impose on Christians and Jews is dhimmi status,” Parsons explained.
“That is why countries enforcing strict shari’a observance, such as Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and Brunei, ban any public celebration of Christmas,” Parsons said. “By attacking Christian festivals, jihadists are signalling they wish to enforce this in the areas they attack.”
Subjugating Christians as dhimmis effectively renders them non-citizens but allows them to remain in the country, provided they worship in private and do not display their religious symbols or celebrate their festivals in public to be seen or heard by Muslims, Parsons added. The rules are rooted the Pact of Umar imposed on Christians in Syria by Islamic conquerors in the 7th century.
“In the case of Christmas, the Qur’an contains an entirely different Christmas story from the Bible,” Parsons stressed. It emphatically denies the biblical significance of Jesus’s birth as God becoming incarnate by sending his Son after revealing himself through the biblical prophets.
Establishing Islamic Supremacism in the Public Sphere
A.J. Nolte, Regent University professor and director of its Institute for Israel Studies, told FWI that Islam’s rejection of the incarnation isn’t unique.
“Rabbinic Judaism also doesn’t accept the doctrine, but we see a very different response to Christmas in Israel than from Islamic supremacists,” Nolte, an Islamic expert, explained. “There are also moderate Muslim youth movements, such as Nahdlatul Ulama in Indonesia, that defend churches on Christmas.”
Nolte elaborated:
The reason, then, isn’t so much Islamic theology but Islamic supremacist ideology. For Islamic supremacists, Christmas markets represent the Christian heritage of Europe—a heritage their ancestors failed to stomp out in the time of Charlemagne. They represent an un-Islamic faith freely practiced and culturally recognized without subordination to Islam.
The Islamists don’t care that Christians believe in the incarnation, but public celebrations of that fact in a way that dominates an urban space would have violated the subordination implicit in the Pact of Umar. As such, Christmas markets are targets for supremacist jihad, the purpose of which is to establish Islamic supremacy and Christian subordination.
“Not only is Christmas the most important celebration for the ‘kuffar’ (infidels), it is also the time of year in which the ‘consumerist’ and ‘decadent’ behaviors of Western societies reach their peak,” the Al Mesbar Studies and Research Center explained.
In his lectures on “The Pagan Origins of Christmas” and “The Origins of ‘Santa Claus,’” American Salafi scholar, Abu Hakeem Bilal Davis, warns Muslims against compromising Islamic principles (manhaj) by participating in festivals like Christmas. Wishing Christians “Merry Christmas” is forbidden (haram) in Islam and is like congratulating someone for a sinful act like drinking wine or worshipping an idol.
In December 2022, Sydney-based Salafi scholar Wissam Hadad, aka Abu Ousayd, claimed that saying “Merry Christmas” is worse than congratulating a person for murder, adultery, drinking, or gambling, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reported.
Police Foil Jihadi Attacks on Christmas
Europe has already witnessed multiple attempted attacks on Christmas markets this year.
German police foiled an attack on a Christmas market in Bavaria on December 13, arresting an Egyptian, a Syrian, and three Moroccans. The Egyptian suspect, an imam, had called for the attack while preaching at a mosque in the Dingolfing-Landau area “using a vehicle to kill or injure as many people as possible,” authorities said. Joachim Herrmann, Bavaria’s state interior minister, described the incident as “a potentially Islamist-motivated attack.”
A Syrian was denied entry to a Leipzig nightclub next to the Christmas market because it was full. The Syrian returned minutes later and pulled an AK-47 from his jacket. Security staff were able to tackle and disarm him after he failed to correctly insert the magazine.
German police also arrested a 21-year-old from Central Asia on suspicion of an Islamist terror attack against a Christmas market, this time targeting “large crowds” in Magdeburg. A car rammed revelers at a Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg in December 2024, killing at least five people and injuring more than 200.
A jihadi attack at a Christmas market in Poland was foiled. Police arrested Mateusz W., a student at the Catholic University of Lublin. “The man was very fascinated by Islam,” and “sought to establish contacts with the Islamic State,” Jacek Dobrzynski, a spokesperson for Poland’s special services, said.
Scholar Warns Against Emboldening Jihadists By Shutting Markets
Meanwhile, several major festive events have been cancelled because of the threat of an Islamist attack. Paris has cancelled its annual New Year’s Eve fête and concert along the iconic Champs-Élysées, which has been a regular event for six decades.
In November, the Christian Post reported that numerous cities in Germany shut down Christmas markets in response to jihadist attacks dating back to 2016. The attacks, the outlet declared, represent a “pattern of Islamic terrorists using vehicles, knives, and other weapons to inflict mass casualties in the midst of a joyous Christmas celebration in hopes of creating the kind of fear and uncertainty that reshapes societies.”
“When you read the propaganda of terrorist groups, Christmas markets are targets as are law enforcement officers, as are places of worship of the Jewish community, as are a number of public institutions,” France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez warned.
“Europe simply welcomed millions of people who were Muslim, who were not highly educated, and who bought into terrorist ideology and are willing to commit terrorist acts and have a culture that is incompatible with Christianity,” Daniel Di Martino, an immigration fellow at the Manhattan Institute, lamented. “And some of them actually hate Christianity, and that’s why they target Christmas markets.”
“Unfortunately, closing such markets for security reasons only emboldens Islamic supremacist jihadists—that’s a ‘win’ for them,” Nolte warned.
