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The “war against Christmas” is much different in North America than it is in the world’s largest Muslim country.

I have regular Skype meetings with Endy Bayuni, editor-in-chief of The Jakarta Post, a leading newspaper in tropical Indonesia.

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Like 87 per cent of the 250 million residents of Indonesia, Endy is a Muslim. The word, “gentleman,” sometimes seems to have been invented just for him.

We’re in regular Skype contact because he is the executive director of the International Association of Religion Journalists and I’m the current chair.

Since Indonesia has often received negative media coverage in the West – for former President Suharto’s ruthless leadership and outbursts of Al Qaida terrorist attacks — I was surprised when Endy mentioned in a recent conversation that he would be off work for the Christmas holiday.

Surely Christmasisn’t a statutory vacation day in Indonesia, which has the largest Muslim population in the world?