As usual at this time of the year, the debate in Turkey on whether Muslims should celebrate the New Year erupts. Christmas and New Year's celebrations are not banned in Turkey, as is the case in Tajikistan, Somalia and Brunei. But the arguments used in those countries that such celebrations are "contrary to Islamic culture, which could damage the faith of the Muslim community" are not foreign to hard-core conservatives who oppose such festivities in Turkey.

While Christmas is not celebrated as a religious holiday in Turkey — where 99% of inhabitants are Muslims — Santa Claus, the Christmas tree and social gatherings have in time become integral elements of New Year’s Eve — a holiday widely celebrated by secular Turks. The dispute takes place each year between the proponents of the celebrations as harmless entertainment, and conservative Muslims who often wrongly confuse Christmas with New Year’s Eve but find both holidays “foreign” and unacceptable.

Turkey’s top official religious body, the Department of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), has offered differing views on this controversy in the past. In 2003, Diyanet’s statement about New Year’s Eve leniently explained it as “part of a universal culture, like celebrations of Mother’s Day, Father’s Day or birthdays,” different from religious celebrations such as Christmas. It described the cultural element of the New Year's celebrations in a global sense, while not neglecting to remind religious prohibitions and appropriate behavior for merrymaking. In recent years, however, the Diyanet statements have taken a less positive tone, emphasizing how such celebrations “alienate” Muslims from their own culture. While this new tone might be the reflection of the latter-day toughening of conservatism in Turkey, it still does not negate the 2003 statement or its validity.

Yet, Diyanet is not the only Islamic voice that has a say in this matter. The dispute escalated further this year by a group of young, pious activists who marched on Dec. 21 with a giant poster that read “A Muslim would not celebrate Christmas.” They were part of the Fatih Generation Youth Education Association who protested the Christmas tree in Istanbul's Maltepe municipality. Posters read "Don't play with our sensitivities" and "Muslims celebrate Eid, not Christmas." A week before, a group of activists from the Islamist Felicity Party’s Atasehir branch in Istanbul also protested a decorated Christmas tree in the local Brandium shopping center, with signs that read “We are the community [in religious terms, the ummah] of the Prophet Muhammad who brought prayer [namaz] from his ascent to heaven, not of Santa Claus who brings presents for New Year.” Another sign the protesters held read “They leave believers and make friends with infidels — do they seek honor and dignity at their sides? Instead, all greatness and honor is Allah’s.”