Advent calendar sparks outrage on Facebook for featuring mosque

'Bringing Islam and Christmas together in trade... you're off your rocker.'

Lindt, a chocolate manufacturer, produced an oriental-themed Advent calendar, which many on Facebook mistook for a Muslim mosque.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Lindt has produced the same "1001 Christmas Dreams" advent calendar for several years, but this year many customers and Facebook users believed the image featured a Mosque.

Though the calendars are entirely sold out for 2015, several are unhappy with its design. The Bible states Jesus of Nazareth was born in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago. Bethlehem is found in the Middle East, so with that in mind, Lindt created the calendar design, but many still misunderstood.

One user commented on Lindt's German Facebook page, writing "Advertisement for ISLAM, an archaic social system in which women are stoned when they've allegedly gone astray... I find it TASTELESS."

Another claimed, "I'm never buying Lindt chocolate again! It's something other customers should consider, too."

One person wrote, "Bringing Islam and Christmas together in trade... you're off your rocker."

In response to one comment, LINDT chocolate, Germany, wrote: "Lindt & Sprüngli always wants to give pleasure and not only with the highest quality chocolate and refined recipes, but also with an appealing packaging. We are far, with our products, the feelings of ourHurting [sic] consumers and very sorry if this was the case. 

"Respect and tolerance, regardless of gender, religion, political opinion or other convictions serve at Lindt & Sprüngli as the basis of every action. Therefore, of course we respect the cultural background of Christmas. 

"The Advent 1001 Nights is more than 10 years a Lindt classic at Christmas. The packaging represents a visualization of that local circumstances. This includes architecture and culture as they might have been in the oriental world to the birth of Christ. Greetings Your Lindt Team."

More knowledgeable users supported the chocolate company, writing, "You're not the brightest candles on the Christmas tree, are you?" and "I don't get why these concerned idiots think it's a mosque. Jerusalem, Bethlehem... all these places are in the Orient, meaning oriental architecture.

"If a bulous [sic] spire symbolised Islam, these so-called defenders of the Christian West would have to torch half the churches in Bavaria."

One person wrote, "More mosques ought to be built in Germany. Obviously many people don't know what they look like." 

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