It’s Christmas time and so it hasn’t taken long for a national newspaper to run a feature implying British Muslims are poorly integrated for “refusing to celebrate a Christian holiday”. The irony of this pernicious Islamophobia, feebly hiding behind the banner of defending the Judeo-Christian values of our country, is that it is bereft of any meaningful understanding of Islam.

You see, the thing is, Muslims love Jesus.

In fact, the Prophet Muhammad said: “The dearest person to me in friendship and in love, in this world and the next is Jesus, the son of Mary.”

It may come as a surprise to many to learn that Jesus is mentioned in the Quran over 100 times, while the Prophet Muhammad, by contrast, is mentioned just five times. Described as the best woman ever to have set foot on earth, there is a whole chapter in the Quran named “Mary” and she is the only woman mentioned by name in the holy book.

It’s not just that Muslims love Jesus – we believe him to be one of the greatest messengers of god. We believe in his miraculous birth. We believe that god gifted him with the ability to bring the dead back to life, heal the leper and bring sight back to the blind and, like Christians, we believe in his second coming back to this world.

The 18 greatest Christmas songs of all time – ranked Show all 18 1 /18 The 18 greatest Christmas songs of all time – ranked The 18 greatest Christmas songs of all time – ranked 18) "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" – John Lennon and Yoko Ono There’s a caveat to the optimistic message of the song’s title. “War is over,” sing a choir of children over festive tambourines, but only, they add, “If you want it.” Having analysed the success of his previous single, “Imagine,” the former Beatle noted, “Now I understand what you have to do: Put your political message across with a little honey.” On this, an anti-Vietnam war protest song wrapped up in sleigh bells, strings and an anthemic melody, he does just that. AP Getty The 18 greatest Christmas songs of all time – ranked 17) "Mary's Boy Child/ Oh My Lord" – Boney M Taking Harry Belafonte’s 1956 hit “Mary’s Boy Child” and singing it in medley with new song “Oh My Lord”, Boney M’s No 1 hit combined Christmas carol-like harmonies with Euro disco, steel drums and a reggae sensibility. It might sound disastrous – but somehow it works. AP The 18 greatest Christmas songs of all time – ranked 16) "2,000 Miles" – The Pretenders “He’s gone/2,000 miles/Is very far,” sings Chrissie Hynde, above a twanging guitar riff in “2,000 Miles”, her serpentine melody stretching each syllable into several. You could easily assume it’s about two separated lovers, but it was actually written for the band’s original guitar player, James Honeyman-Scott, who died of a drug overdose a year earlier at the age of 25. The song is desperately bleak – as is the case with all the best Christmas songs – but with a note of festive hopefulness too. “The children were singing/He’ll be back at Christmas time.” AP Rex The 18 greatest Christmas songs of all time – ranked 15) "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" – Brenda Lee Brenda Lee was just 13 years old when she made herself a rockabilly legend thanks to the recording of this party classic. It always reminds me of scenes in The Santa Clause (one of the best ever Christmas films) where the jaunty number was heavily featured, along with seminal holiday movie Home Alone. RO The 18 greatest Christmas songs of all time – ranked 14) "Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!" – Dean Martin Few Christmas songs are as cosy as this one. Dean Martin’s smooth, rich voice is as warming as a good glass of whisky; paired with sweeping, romantic strings and a chirpy flute, “Let it Snow!” conjures up images of stockings hanging up over the chimney, a Christmas tree glinting with baubles, and a frost-tinted window with snow falling outside. RO Getty Images The 18 greatest Christmas songs of all time – ranked 13) "Walking in the Air" – The Snowman / Peter Auty Though Aled Jones tends to get the credit for this haunting masterpiece, it is actually the voice of choirboy Peter Auty that appears in the climactic scene of the wordless 1982 animation The Snowman. He wasn’t credited though, and when his voice broke and Jones’s version reached number five in the UK charts, he was almost written out of history. In truth, though, whichever version you hear, the song’s sweeping grandeur is goosebumps-inducing. AP Channel 4 The 18 greatest Christmas songs of all time – ranked 12) "Peace on Earth/ Little Drummer Boy" – David Bowie/ Bing Crosby Recorded for Bing Crosby’s TV special Merrie Olde Christmas, and framed around a strange scripted exchange of banter between the two, this mash-up only came about because Bowie hated the song, “Little Drummer Boy”, that he had been asked on the show to sing. So songwriters Ian Fraser and Larry Grossman, alongside the show’s scriptwriter, cobbled together “Peace on Earth” to serve as a counterpoint, while Crosby performed the intended song. They recorded the resulting medley after less than an hour of rehearsal, and five weeks later, Crosby died. AP Redferns The 18 greatest Christmas songs of all time – ranked 11) "Santa Baby" – Eartha Kitt “Eartha Kitt is the sexiest woman in the world. You don’t write Christmas songs that are sexy. How are we going to do that?” Poor Phil Springer. Half of the songwriting team behind the super sultry “Santa Baby” was always slightly resentful that his biggest hit was a festive one. Well, I’m grateful for it. Eartha Kitt’s huskily delivered letter to Santa Claus is undoubtedly the sexiest Christmas song of all time, and has been covered by everyone from Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift to Madonna (I don’t talk about Madge’s attempt) and Michael Buble. Yet it’s Kitt’s version you find yourself coming back to. RO The 18 greatest Christmas songs of all time – ranked 10) "The Christmas Song" – Nat King Cole This Mel Torme composition was originally written, according to Torme, with Bob Wells as a mind-over-matter attempt to stay cool during a stifling summer day in 1945. It’s one of Cole’s most enduring hits, and one of the most beloved of all Christmas songs. RO GETTY IMAGES The 18 greatest Christmas songs of all time – ranked 9) "I Believe in Father Christmas" – Greg Lake This Mel Torme composition was originally written, according to Torme, with Bob Wells as a mind-over-matter attempt to stay cool during a stifling summer day in 1945. It’s one of Cole’s most enduring hits, and one of the most beloved of all Christmas songs. RO Reuters The 18 greatest Christmas songs of all time – ranked 8) "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" – Andy Williams Andy Williams’ classic brings to mind the kind of big, brash Christmas’s you see in American films – lots of presents, blazing fireplaces and a huge feast – but also plays heavily on the importance of spending time with your loved ones. It consistently appears in the top 10s of Christmas song rankings, and more than 50 years in, the 1963 staple shows no signs of wearing out. RO AP The 18 greatest Christmas songs of all time – ranked 7) 'Stop the Cavalry" – Jona Lewie It was “just another anti-war song” until Jona Lewie threw a kazoo into the mix. The English singer-songwriter never intended “Stop the Cavalry” to become a Christmas single, but the festive mention in the line “I wish I was at home for Christmas”, along with the addition of a Salvation Army brass band and tubular bell, was enough to convince listeners. The song sold 4m copies upon its release and was only kept off the top slot that Christmas because of John Lennon’s death and consequent position at numbers one and two on the UK singles chart. Lewie told The Guardian in 2015 that he earns more from “Stop the Cavalry” than the rest of his songs put together. RO The 18 greatest Christmas songs of all time – ranked 6) "Driving Home for Christmas" – Chris Rea In 1978, Rea thought it was all over. His record contract was done, and his manager had just told him he was quitting. Rea wanted to get home from London’s Abbey Road studios to Middlesborough, but his record company wouldn’t pay for a ticket. “My wife got in our old Austin Mini, drove all the way down from Middlesbrough to Abbey Road studios to pick me up, and we set off back straight away,” he told The Guardian. “Then it started snowing. We had £220 and I was fiddling with it all the way home. We kept getting stuck in traffic and I’d look across at the other drivers, who all looked so miserable. Jokingly, I started singing: “We’re driving home for Christmas…” RO AFP/Getty The 18 greatest Christmas songs of all time – ranked 5) "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" – Frank Sinatra Sinatra’s version of this classic Christmas song opens on his isolated vocals before gradually introducing the swooning choir and tender strings section. And the lyrics: “Have yourself a merry little Christmas/Make the Yuletide gay / From now on your troubles will be miles away/Here we are as in olden days/Happy golden days of yore/Faithful friends who are dear to us / Gather near to us once more.” RO AP The 18 greatest Christmas songs of all time – ranked 4) "All I Want for Christmas is You" – Mariah Carey One of the best moments on American Idol in 2014 was an exchange between judges Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey, who famously did not get on during the series. As a contestant/Mariah stan [“stalker fan”] told the star he loved “All I Want for Christmas is You“ and hailed it as the “best modern-day Christmas song”, Minaj threw a little shade by saying: “It sure was, wasn’t it?”, emphasis on the ”was“ very much intended. Carey’s response was immediate and dismissive: “Still is, dahling!” She earns a reported £4000,000 in royalties from the track each year, with its lasting popularity testament to just how good a song it is. Its unyielding Christmas spirit and those diminished (infectious) C minor chords combine for the ultimate experience of festive cheer, with a perfect mix of nostalgia and pop sentimentalism thrown in for good measure. RO AP The 18 greatest Christmas songs of all time – ranked 3) "Last Christmas" – Wham! George Michael wrote, performed, produced and played every single instrument on this song, where the narrator looks back with sadness on a past relationship. As with “Fairytale of New York”, you have an upbeat, cheerful rhythm and chirpy instrumentation, against the melancholy of unrequited love in the lyrics, with the suggestion that it was given away too hastily (“This year, to save me from tears/I’ll give it to someone special”). RO YouTube/WhamVEVO The 18 greatest Christmas songs of all time – ranked 2) "Fairytale of New York" – The Pogues Some of the best songs combine uplifting instrumentation that contrasts with lyrics that can be downright miserable, and such is the case for “Fairytale of New York”. It has none of the sickly sweet sentimentality of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” or Wham!’s “Last Christmas”. “Fairytale of New York” is a drunken hymn for those with broken dreams and abandoned hopes. Its narrator, an Irish immigrant, is thrown into a drunk tank to sleep off his Christmas Eve binge. Hearing an old man sing the Irish ballad “The Rare Old Mountain Dew”, he begins to dream about the past, and so begins the story of two people who fell in love in America, only to see their plans of a bright future dashed. Shane MacGowan’s slurring, bitter delivery of those opening vocals is played out over romanticised piano chords, then to those wonderful, jaunty strings, with Terry Woods’ mandolin part giving the song an additional Irish brogue. RO YouTube/Screengrab The 18 greatest Christmas songs of all time – ranked 1) "Winter Wonderland" – Bing Crosby Richard (Dick) Smith was suffering from tuberculosis, an illness which had plagued him since a child, from his bed in a sanatorium in Philadelphia. Gazing longingly out of his window at the snow, he wrote a poem describing all the things he would do when he was well again. He was inspired by the views of people playing in the park across the street from his family home on Church Street, where he’d lived with his mother, brother and two sisters. His father had died when he was a child. After he was finished, he took the lyrics to his friend Felix Bernard, a professional pianist. A copy of “Winter Wonderland” found its way to Joey Nash, lead singer of the Richard Himber Orchestra, who recorded it in 1934. Guy Lombardo heard Nash’s recording and made a record of his own, which became a hit that December. Smith died in 1935 before “Winter Wonderland” became a Christmas hit again for Ted Weems, and long before Crosby recorded his, and arguably the most famous, version. RO STF/AFP/Getty

Just as Muslims have a deep love and respect for Jesus, so too are we taught to love and respect our Christian friends who have a different view of who Jesus was. Unfortunately, thanks to a handful of extremist nutters, coupled with an all too often Islamophobic media industry, people tend to have this erroneous notion that all Muslims want to do is convert everyone, and violently at that. Well, the Quran emphatically states that “there is no compulsion in religion”, meaning you can’t force anyone to become Muslim.

Across the globe, notably in the heart of Muslim lands, Muslims and Christians have lived side by side for over a 1000 years. Whilst under threat, this spirit of peaceful coexistence can still be found throughout the world today, and it is this spirit of cooperation and sharing that we need to revive in our communities across the country.

Despite the deep theological difference between Christianity and Islam, the two great religious traditions have a lot more in common than people think. Analogous stories of wisdom and wit from the great prophets like Abraham, Moses, David and Noah are found in both traditions, as are descriptions of angels, the after-life and so much more. However, it is the radical message of Jesus that we all; Muslims, Christians, people of all faiths and none, could do well to remember in these confusing times.

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Jesus was known for his profound humility, his fighting against injustice and his giving up of his own desires in preference for others. His radical love of the most vulnerable and neglected in society was rooted in his deep connection to the divine. Reflecting on the life of Jesus, we see a dynamic message that seeks to direct our focus away from the vacuous glitter of this world and towards a life of meaning, purpose and service.