"Muslims should not take Christians or Jews for friends. (Al-Ma’idah 5:51) They must fight against Christians and Jews who refuse Islam until they surrender, pay the poll-tax and are humiliated. (At-Taubah 9:29) To this may be added hundreds of Qur’anic verses on the subject of jihad in the path of Allah, as well as the 'Book of Jihad' found in all Hadith collections."

Sky is correct there, as is any world history textbook that talks about the "Gunpowder Empires," which is what the Ottomans were all about. There has been religious wars going on in the Middle East for zillions of years and it wanders over to Europe (and/from Africa) occasionally, and isn't likely to stop now, despite our thinking we're too "modern" for it and have put the Crusades and that sort of thing behind us. Both Christianity and Islam are what are referred to as "militant" religions for a reason and I don't think we're going to solve that whole problem here! I am not personally out to rape, murder, pillage or burn anyone and don't think anyone else here is either; whether Christian, Muslim, Wiccan, or anything else.

The Solstice celebrations are Northern Hemisphere, it-gets-dark-in-Europe sorts of things. Christianity used whatever beliefs were there to help make the transition. I don't think there's any such thing as a "pure" religion. Religion is (wo)man's idea of how to worship God not something God laid down. In the beginning of religions there's a lot that is said about how to "do" things because the religion has to get started and it's a little hard if no one comes up with a story line and how things should be? The Jews had to get "out" from among all the other religions of the time/region and the Old Testament talks about that. The New Testament uses the Book of Acts mostly to kind of talk about what was happening in the Church at that time versus Saturnalius, what the Romans were doing. Christmas uses some of the Gospel stories of Jesus being born, the 3 wise men, Bethlehem, etc. to come up with some Christmas traditions but he was born in a desert area, a bit hard to move to Germany? So we have Yule logs, Christmas trees, eggnog, etc. There are multiple Great Flood stories, why does it matter if we call the guy Noah or something else?