Muslim Mayor Didn't Ban the Word “Christmas”

In December 2017, the website Last Line of Defense published an article claiming that “Muslim mayor” Ravi Bhalla of Hoboken, New Jersey had banned the word “Christmas” from being used in official contexts within the Hoboken government on account of cross-cultural sensitivity.

Last Line of Defense is incorrect on several accounts.

First, Ravi Bhalla was not technically the “mayor” of Hoboken at the time of the article’s publishing. He was elected in 2017 and did not take office until 2018. Second, Bhalla is Sikh, not Muslim. Because of his religious affiliation and turban, he is frequently the subject of Islamophobic rumors. For instance, Bhalla has also been falsely accused of vowing to “glorify Allah” with every decision he made in office.

There is no evidence to suggest that then-mayor-elect Bhalla banned the word “Christmas.” The Hoboken Journal, the only source that LLOD cites, is a blog that ceased to exist in 2010, and no other source can be found to have reported this story. Furthermore, the Last Line of Defense brands this sort of politically incorrect content as “satire,” presumably to create plausible deniability of its claims. In the total absence of any evidence of this claim, Occam’s Razor deduces that it must be False.

In summary, Hoboken, NJ mayor Ravi Bhalla is Sikh, not Muslim, and there is no evidence to suggest that he banned the word “Christmas.”