This is just fine. The problem is that it is, like most efforts at “outreach,” all one way. Muslim efforts at “outreach” to Christians and non-Muslims almost always take the form of subtle proselytizing, in accord with the statement of Sayyid Qutb in Milestones: “The chasm between Islam and Jahiliyyah [the society of unbelievers] is great, and a bridge is not to be built across it so that the people on the two sides may mix with each other, but only so that the people of Jahiliyyah may come over to Islam.”
In line with this, 138 Muslim scholars wrote to then-Pope Benedict XVI a few years ago, inviting him to dialogue. The title of the document they sent to him was A Common Word Between Us and You. Reading the entire Qur’anic verse from which the phrase “a common word between us and you” was taken makes the Common Word initiative’s agenda clear: “Say: ‘People of the Book! Come now to a word common between us and you, that we serve none but God, and that we associate not aught with Him, and do not some of us take others as Lords, apart from God.’ And if they turn their backs, say: ‘Bear witness that we are Muslims’” (3:64). Since Muslims consider the Christian confession of the divinity of Christ to be an unacceptable association of a partner with God, this verse is saying that the “common word” that Muslims and the People of the Book should agree on is that Christians should discard one of the central tenets of their faith and essentially become Muslims. Not a promising basis for an honest and mutually respectful dialogue of equals.
Also, contrast:
Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood forbids Muslims to wish Christians “Happy Easter”
Toronto mosque tells Muslims to stay away from Western holidays
Islamic clerics urge Malaysian Muslims not to join religious festivities of other faiths
