Baby Jesus ban lifted........

Baby Jesus ban lifted - gee where do we fall down face first grovelling in thanks for this generous concession?

By BEN SHARKEY and MARK SKELSEY
December 1, 2004
http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story.jsp?sectionid=1260&storyid=2314704
No complaints ... Oporto franchise owner Charlie Saliba with his nativity scene
A FAST food chain yesterday admitted it was overzealous in its pursuit of political correctness when it banned one of its Sydney stores from displaying a traditional Christmas nativity scene.
Last Thursday, Westfield Hornsby Oporto franchise owner Charlie Saliba was told to remove his nativity scene – depicting baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the Three Wise Men and a shepherd – for fear it would offend non-Christian customers.
Mr Saliba, a Catholic, said: "I am Maltese and we are very much into our Christmas decorations . . .
they told me take it down and I thought it was a shame because, without a nativity scene, it's not Christmas.
"I've been putting the nativity scene up for the past 3½ years and have not had one complaint. I have had a lot of compliments."
Oporto chief executive Jeff Fisher had previously told The Daily Telegraph the chain supported generic decorations over nativity scenes because Australia was a multicultural society and it would be wrong to push any one religious belief.
Mr Fisher was singing a different tune yesterday after a wave of public opinion.
"The issue [of the nativity scene] is obviously something the community feels very strongly about," he said. "We have listened to the community and corrected the situation.
"We are guilty of being over-sensitive by wanting to keep the decorations to a general nature. We tried to be politically correct and that was overzealous."
Yesterday morning the nativity scene, which cost $500 to construct, was returned to its pride of place next to the shop's second most sacred object: the chip machine.
Regular customer Noreen Dillon, 65, said it was good to see sanity prevail.
"I think sometimes people are afraid of upsetting minority groups, who in reality don't care about the nativity scenes anyway," the Wahroonga resident said. "I have Muslim neighbours and they wish me a happy Christmas so what's the big deal?"
Mr Saliba who said Muslim and Jewish staff had not complained about the nativity scene and were happy to have it in the store.
Keysar Trad, a director of the Australian Lebanese Muslim Association, said Muslims would have no objection to nativity scenes.
"We celebrate the life of Christ and see him as one of the five greatest people who ever lived and a prophet of God," he said.
Westfield public relations manager Julia Clark said most of the company's shopping centres had nativity scenes.
The only two without were because of space, she said. Even Bankstown Square, amid a large population of non-Christian backgrounds, has a nativity scene.