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The High Holy Days are upon us. No, not that one. The high holy days of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

And with that, come the culture wars again. Some pundits Muslim, Christian, Jewish, etc. issue annual statements about the pagan origins of Halloween, and why their community should not participate in it. Certain Christian preachers like Pat Robertson opine:

The whole idea of trick-or-treating is the Druids would go to somebodys house and ask for money and if they didnt get money theyd kill one of their sheep, that was the sheep and it was serious stuff. All this business about goblins and jack-o-lanterns all comes out of demonic rituals of the Druids and the people who lived in England at that particular time.

In my own community, many Muslim leaders are politically quite progressive (against racism, against empire, against wealth disparity) but somewhat culturally conservative. In a widely circulated blog post by Imam Zaid Shakir, the charismatic American Muslim leader who is often favorably compared to Malcolm X, he offered a dismissal of Halloween:

One the tragedies of our times is found in the easy willingness some Muslims accept practices, rituals or cultural symbols that have their roots in demonic or occult practices.

This is not going to be one of those columns.

I find myself in a different space. I have zero interest in endorsing or rejecting Halloween on the basis of fitting in, assimilating to, or rejecting mainstream culture. I couldnt tell you anything about the Druids without going on Wikipedia. My concern has nothing to do with the historic origin of Halloween because, lets be honest, many of our religious traditions (and even buildings) have pagan roots. It has to do with what Halloween does for our community, or at least for my neighborhood.

A teenage girl tries on a Halloween costume in Miami, Florida. Halloween is now the second-largest commercial holiday in the United States according to National Retail Federation. Americans spent approximately billion on Halloween in 2013.

Yes, I struggle with certain parts of Halloween. I struggle to see 10-year-old girls dressed up in ways that project a type of precious sexuality. It breaks my heart to see the girls' costume aisle look like something out of a sick, perverted male fantasy. Rape culture, indeed.

Yes, lets just stop with the sexy Ebola nurse outfits, please. Or the female ISIS-fighter costumes.

Excerpt from:
Omid Safi: In praise of Halloween's ability to connect neighbors