That Sunni and Shia pilgrims come together as brothers and sisters in Islam during the hajj is a powerful reminder of how religion can unite people as well as divide them. Pilgrims planning to go on hajj are advised to avoid conflict and disagreement with other Muslims, to refrain from judging or being harsh toward others whose customs or interpretations of Islam may seem ignorant or incorrect. 92% of Irish citizens answered that they are Christian (88% Catholic). Christianity was introduced to Ethiopia in the 4th century, and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (called Tewahdo in Ethiopia) is one of the oldest organized Christian bodies in the world. So although Muslims do not believe that Jesus is the son of God – a critically important distinction between Muslim and Christian views of him – Muslims do revere Jesus as an important prophet. Not to be outdone, Saudi Arabia’s top religious leader struck back, accusing the Iranians of being pagan fire worshipers, not Muslims. Christmas, as everyone knows, commemorates the birth of Jesus and is a major religious celebration for Christians around the world.

Because that’s what the hajj is really supposed to be about: believers from around the world coming together, putting aside linguistic, cultural, class, and sectarian differences, and worshiping God. Whoever’s fault it was, no Iranian pilgrims were allowed at the hajj in 2016. In 2017, however, Iran lifted the ban, and around 80,000 Iranians performed the hajj that year. For the most part, Sunni and Shia pilgrims on hajj get along just fine – despite the best efforts of the governments of Iran and Saudi Arabia to stir up sectarian tension every year for geopolitical gain. Some people believe that the best way to help yourself change the way you think is to tell yourself — repeatedly — to think a different way. If God never changes, then how can He change His mind? It’s also the reason that sneezing can lead to teary eyes. It can be a struggle, but I muddle through it.

“Iran refused to sign the memorandum and was practically demanding the right to hold demonstrations and to have other advantages … While the relationship between religion and nationalism has usually been strained and ambivalent with the strong hold of the Islamic leaders in Kurdish society, it has generally been the conservative Muslim Kurds who formed the backbone of the Kurdish movements. Magi refers to Zoroastrians and those who worship fire. They said, “How shall we speak to one who is yet a child in the cradle? She said, “How shall I have a boy when no man has touched me, nor have I been unchaste? Why are people in Europe either religious or irreligious but Americans have this third category called spiritual? As noted in the Study Quran, “other female figures are identified only by their relation to others, such as the wife of Adam and the mother of Moses, or by their title, such as the Queen of Sheba.” Mary is mentioned more times in the Qur’an than in the entire New Testament of the Bible.

Jesus, Mary, and the angel Gabriel are all prominent characters in the Qur’an (as are Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and a bunch of other Bible characters). And there are tons of Shia Muslims from other countries, too. Muslims don’t believe Jesus was the son of God, but they do revere him as a holy prophet. Just as they do with all the other prophets, including Mohammed, devout Muslims recite “peace be upon him” after every time they refer to Jesus by name. Although Muslims pray five times daily in their homes or wherever they are, in fact even in the streets, Muslims also worship in mosques. But what many people don’t know is that Jesus is an important figure in Islam, too, even though most Muslims don’t celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday. But the revised rules also included restrictions on religious schooling and the times and locations of religious celebrations, as well as monitoring of online religious activity and reporting donations that exceed 100,000 yuan (around $15,900). There was no defence in the law under discussion regarding honest religious disagreement – Greenawalt believes the Court should have noted this. “Saudi Arabia does not prevent anyone from performing the religious duty,” the Saudi foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, said at a news conference with his visiting British counterpart, Philip Hammond.