Robin Padilla defends celebrating Christmas with family

Image: instagram/@marieltpadilla

Christmas was particularly special for the Rodriguez-Padilla household this year as it is the first time Robin Padilla and wife Mariel Rodriguez are celebrating Yuletide season together.

Rodriguez took to her Instagram on Dec. 25 to mark the event, sharing a sweet family photo of her, Robin and daughter Isabella posing in front of their white-themed Christmas tree at home.

“Our first Christmas together,” Rodriguez gushed. “We were in Delaware for @mariaisabelladepadilla’s 1st Christmas then last year @robinhoodpadilla spent it in Marawi so this is the first time we are together as a family…”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BrzHyzVjLxI/

Rodriguez’s photo has garnered over 33,000 likes as of this writing, but it seems some are not amenable to the momentous family affair. Some netizens apparently called out Padilla for celebrating Christmas when he is a Muslim, saying it is forbidden in Islamic law. Rodriguez has since changed the privacy settings and removed the comments section of her post, but screenshots of the exchange were shared online via the Fashion Pulis website.

“Ginagawang buffet ang Islam ni @robinhoodpadilla pinipili lang [niya] ang gusto [niya] e-apply sa buhay [niya],” wrote one netizen (@sa_phra08). “[Hindi] pa [niya] naiintindihan ang turo ng Islam…”

Another agreed, saying a Muslim should know what haram (forbidden) is, as well as halal (permissible) in Islamic law.

“Dapat po alam ng isang Islam ang haram is haram… Halal is halal,” wrote another netizen (@aasiyahabelinda). “[Dapat] manindigan yan. Mali ay mali hindi puwede ugaliin.”

A certain Edelyn (@edelynperez02) tagged Padilla in her comment, asking him why he is celebrating Christmas. “All I know that Islam is not celebrating Xmas why @robinhoodpadilla is celebrating it?”

Padilla, on his end, replied to the netizen’s comment, saying that Islam is about peace, love and respect to all mankind.

“Christmas is love and sharing. Christmas in the Philippines is more of culture and traditions not of religious extremism,” Padilla replied. “We all believe in the miraculous birth of Jesus Christ (PBUH) let us focus [our] energy and conversation on things that we are the same God-willing.”

Padilla may be a Muslim, but Rodriguez is a Catholic. The couple tied the knot in 2010 at the Taj Mahal in India and decided for Isabella to have both a Catholic baptism and an aqiqah (the Islamic tradition of sacrificing an animal on the occasion of a child’s birth) in November 2017. Mariel, then, shared that they were leaving it to Isabella to decide what her religion would be in the future.

“As parents it is our duty to teach our children how to respect ALL religions,” she said. “It is also our responsibility to guide them but never to dictate to them.”  Cody Cepeda /ra

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