According to CTV News Canada, on October 7, 2013, the previously canceled Halloween and Christmas celebrations have just been reinstated at Winnipeg's Hastings School.  These Canadian traditional holidays that have been celebrated for a few hundred years, were about to be replaced with possibly Islamic ones.  Yes, Islamic ones.  How so?

Hastings School chose to replace Christmas festivities with African "drumming."  Given the insistence on an African theme, why did the school not choose African "music" instead, like the magnificent and magical music of Mali that was outlawed by Islam when al-Qaeda took control there?  Why drumming?  Here's why.

According to the more authentic and reliable hadiths -- traditions or deeds attributed to Mohammed that provide the basis of sharia or Islamic law, after the Koran -- musical instruments are all regarded as tools of Satan (Bukhari, vol.2, book 15, hadith 70) and forbidden in Islam, except for the daf drum (Abu Dawud, book 15, hadith 3306).

Singing, which was not a Christmas-replacement option for Hastings School, is also forbidden in Islam (especially for women), as it "produces hypocrisy (Abu Dawud, book 41, hadith 4909) in the heart" and is considered to be the voice of Satan.  Both musical instruments and singing lead man astray and deviate from the path of Allah.  Those who use musical instruments will be destroyed and "transformed into monkeys and pigs" (Bukhari, vol. 69, hadith 494v).  One hadith from the sacred collection called Hadee's-e-Qudsi Ahmad (19:5) commands Mohammed "to destroy all the musical instruments, idols, crosses and all the trappings of ignorance."

The daf drum from Islamic North Africa is the only musical instrument and the only kind of drum allowed in Islam because this drum, being hollow like the tambourine but without jingles, emanates a sound that could be construed as uninspiring and incapable of stirring up human emotion.  Moving the human spirit is simply not allowed in Islam when it has nothing to do with worshiping Allah or promoting faith in him.  Therefore, this particular drum is often allowed in Islam, as it supposedly evokes no emotion.  Is this the drum that Hastings school would have offered in lieu of Canada's traditional celebrations?

Hastings School just happens to be part of the Louis Riel School Division, which changed its music curriculum to accommodate Islam back in 2011.  In doing so, the division did not stand up for Canadian values.  A dozen recently arrived Muslim families to Canada demanded that their children be excused for Islamic reasons from the elementary school compulsory music and co-ed physical education programs.  These families would not allow their children to be exposed to singing or playing musical instruments, as this is not permitted in Islam.

Despite the great importance that Louis Riel School Division places on music education, as can be seen on its website ("music is an integral part of a well-rounded education that stimulates and enriches the mind and the emotions, and contributes to the development and quality of life for the individual and society"), the school division caved to Muslim demands by suggesting that these students write a music project instead.  Regarding the elementary school physical education classes, it was decided that boys and girls would have separate classes.  Well, so much for promoting Canadian values.

Hastings School in the end decided to bring back the traditional holiday festivities to its students, thanks to all those who got involved to turn the tide of sharia.  One small victory for the Western world.  However, there are many more waves to tackle.  Religious and traditional holiday celebrations foreign to Islam are being canceled in many other cities, towns, and school districts throughout the world where Muslim immigration is on the rise.  Furthermore, when these festivities are not being canceled, they are being renamed, giving new meaning to the term "all-inclusive holidays": Christmas and Halloween have become Winter Concert and Spirit Day, respectively.  Hastings School renamed the former.

Inclusivity paves the way for religious Islamic organizations, like the Canadian Council of Muslim Theologians, which opposes the participation of Muslim children in Halloween festivities, to continue pushing their sharia agenda onto the West with great ease.  Hastings School is one school amongst many that is hastening this sharia process by offering more and more concessions and accommodations to Islam, in order to avoid offending Muslims.

Unless Western citizens continue to turn back the tide of sharia and resist its encroachment, as concerned citizens did at Hastings School, those tides will eventually envelop the West and drown everyone within.  Banning traditional holiday celebrations and tolerating all-inclusive holidays can no longer be options if Western civilization is to survive.

Cynthia Yacowar-Sweeney is a Montreal-based freelance writer and artist. She monitors and comments on global media reports and the rising threat of radical Islam.