DEARBORN, Mich. — Inside a public school, Santa Claus waved to the eager kids awaiting to receive presents from him.
“Keefak,” he said to the largely Muslim group of children, using an Arabic word that means, “How are you?”
One boy replied in Arabic: “Is Santa Arab?”
At this school, Santa Claus is.
For 24 years, he has been played at Salina Elementary School by Jim Stokes, a Dearborn attorney whose grandmother was a Lebanese Catholic immigrant.
“When I see the kids, I think of her,” said Stokes, decked out in a Santa suit and beard.
At Salina, at least 95% of the students are Arab-American Muslims, many of them of Yemeni descent from homes where parents are religious conservatives.
Despite the differences in faith and ethnicity, the kids and families have embraced the Western and Christian tradition of Santa Claus. Over the years, only a couple of Muslim parents have objected to their students participating because of religious reasons, said organizers.
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