A letter to Santa Claus is getting tons of attention on Reddit—because it was supposedly written by a Muslim fourth-grader.
On Dec. 12, redditor 9999 submitted a post titled “My mom is a 4th grade teacher. Here is one of her Muslim student’s letters to Santa.” The post linked to a photograph of the letter in question.
“I know that I never wrote you a letter because I don’t celebrate Christmas, but I am wrighting you this one to thank you for giving everyone presents,” the letter began.
The letter went on to ask how Santa traveled all around the world in a single night and again thanked him for spreading happiness.
Submitted to the r/pics subreddit, the letter earned over 27,800 upvotes and temporarily reached the front page of Reddit. Some redditors praised the student’s display of religious tolerance.
“Take notes: Rest of the fucking world. This is how you should act when it comes to other people’s beliefs. (Not like a total douchebag),” TheDerpofYork commented.
“Sadly the ones who are intolerant are ‘adults’. Maybe we should let 4th graders make geopolitical decisions,” MF_Doomed commented.
Other redditors discussed the aspect of a Muslim student taking part in the Christian-themed holiday. Some, like redditor JenniferHewitt, defended the situation, using their own school experiences as proof of the assignment’s lack of harm. Others attacked the seemingly forced participation in the non-Muslim celebration.
“Anyone else think it’s weird a 9 year old Muslim in 4th grade is writing a letter to Santa?” cool_colors asked.
“This pisses me off. As the only Jewish kid in my 4th grade class it was very sad writing letters to Santa. Also I got sent home for telling everyone Santa doesn’t exist,” thejewishmenace commented.
Other redditors claim that the letter was fake and that 9999, a brand new redditor, had submitted it purely to gain karma.
“Oh my god, this is such bullshit. Why do you idiots upvote this? Read the letter. It’s such an obvious fake. Fuck you, reddit,” jameshues commented.
“It is amazing how much effort some people put into getting some Karma,” vxx commented.
shit_another_brick did not elaborate on the letter but did react to the sudden interest.
“Oh Shit…first post front page and controversy of course. It is reddit right?” shit_another_brick commented. “To my mother’s defense I don’t think the assignment was meant to be a religious one, and the student was given other options. However, she chose to write a letter to Santa and did so adorably, so I wanted to share it with you guys.”
Photo via shit_another_brick/imgur
