The rare convergence of Prophet Mohammed's and Jesus' birthdays this year gives cause to think about the religions followed by more than half of humanity. (Sarah Dea / The National)
The rare convergence of Prophet Mohammed's and Jesus' birthdays this year gives cause to think about the religions followed by more than half of humanity. (Sarah Dea / The National)

Opinion

Much in common

Celebrating the birthdays of two prophets ought to enhance religious tolerance

National Editorial

December 23, 2015

What should be read into the near-coincidence of the birthdays – the Prophet Mohammed’s today and Jesus’s on Friday – of the two main prophets of the religions followed by more than half the world’s population? Does it reflect anything more than just a quirk of the differences between the Hijri and Gregorian calendars?

Amid a turbulent year in which intolerance and extremism has featured in everything from the Kalashnikov-toting zealots who shed so much blood in Paris last month to the inflammatory rhetoric of the Republican US presidential candidates, it is tempting to see this as a reminder that Islam and Christianity have more in common than dividing them.

A recent survey found most of us feel optimistic about 2016. If the tolerant and intelligent majority of both faiths stand up to drown out the voices of those who sow religious hatred, we can really have something to feel optimistic about.

While you're here