It had to happen. By their growing numbers and the high tide of political correctness, New York City can add to its pressures from Muslims the push for school holidays for their faith. New Yorkers are already pressed by the move to build a mosque near ground zero. Now parents of Muslim students are taking their request to the state level since they got no approval of the idea from the Bloomberg Administration.
Suffice to say, all religious holidays have pretty much disappeared from the school calendar under their former names. Christmas break is now winter break. Christmas is more like St. Patrick’s day – everyone’s a Christian that day and we have to be honest, the country was founded by Christians – the Pilgrims having come to escape religious persecution.
OK so try to add another religions holiday to the school year and you may run into religious persecution on the part of the formerly persecuted. I am not familiar with the New York City holiday calendar but where I live is a heavily Jewish area and the highest Jewish holidays the students take floating holidays.
Floating holidays are fair and equitable. Teachers should try not to schedule tests on these days.
People need to remember that additional holidays mean decreased productivity in school and in the workplace. Floating holidays are the most equitable solution.
Here is the full article on the situation:
Muslims seek to add holidays on NY school calendar
Jul 12, 2010 4:15pm EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Muslim parents, students and civic groups are campaigning to add two of their religious holidays to the New York City public school calendar, pinning their hopes on state lawmakers after failing to win over Mayor Michael Bloomberg to the idea.
Putting Eid Ul-Fitr, a holiday marking the end of Ramadan, and Eid Ul-Adha, celebrating the end of the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, on the list of official school holidays will help ease suspicion and reduce anti-Muslim sentiment nearly a decade after the September 11 attacks, they say.
Supporters say there are more than 100,000 Muslim students in the public schools, or about 12 percent of the enrollment.
Hundreds of supporters gathered outside City Hall on June 30 to pressure Bloomberg on the issue, saying the holidays could be recognized by adding just five days off over the next decade, since many fall on existing holidays or weekends.
Bloomberg rejected the proposal, arguing city students cannot afford more days off. Just four in 10 students graduate on time and one in 10 drops out, according to statistics.
“Everybody would like to be recognized but the truth of the matter is we need more school days, not less,” he said.
Supporters now are looking to a bill that calls for instituting the Muslim holidays as days off in city schools. It is pending in the state Senate and Assembly and if it becomes law, it would supersede Bloomberg’s decision despite his control of New York City schools.
CHOICE BETWEEN RELIGION AND SCHOOL
The school calendar currently has 13 observed holidays, including Jewish ones such as Rosh Hashana and Christian holidays such as Good Friday. The religious holidays have been on the calendar for at least several decades.
Of the 11 generally observed Muslim holidays, none are on the school calendar.
“There is a large group of people who feel like they have to choose between religion and school,” said Faiza Ali, a spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
The issue surfaced in 2006, when Eid Ul-Adha fell on the same day as a statewide reading test. Some Muslim students stayed home, missing the crucial skills test. Others attended, missing the holiday with their families.
Some Muslims say they are frustrated by Bloomberg’s decision in the wake of public opposition to proposed construction of several mosques in the city and the 2007 ousting of an Arabic school principal after neighbors accused the school of being a breeding ground for militants.
Bloomberg often speaks of tolerance and diversity and supports the mosque construction, including one near the site of the World Trade Center towers destroyed on September 11, 2001, in al-Qaeda suicide attacks.
“Our kids know other holidays but then they see that their holidays are not recognized. It sends a mixed message,” said Isabel Bucaram, a Muslim with two children in city schools. “My daughter says to me, ‘They do it for others. Why not us?’”
A resolution in support of adding the holidays was approved last year in the City Council and the proposal has support of the teachers’ union and the city’s borough presidents.
For parents such as Ayman Hammous, a physical therapist originally from Egypt whose four children attend city schools, the debate comes down to acceptance.
“Putting the holidays on the calendar will send a positive message to the Muslim community that you are welcome here,” he said.
roxannadanna
July 14, 2010
These people need to be stopped because they don’t settle with just practicing their religion, they want to remake this nation, conquer it, make it islamic in law and culture.
This is not about religion for them.
samhenry
July 14, 2010
I think it may be true of many of them. And that element has been imported to stir up trouble here. It doesn’t help when more and more born and bred Muslims from varioius Middle Eastern countries have left to ally themselves with terrorists. It doesn’t help when American born and bred Muslims remain here to try to destroy the country. It is a reality. Most of us who abide by the Constitution give most law-abiding people a break. I don’t know the way out of this mess. We just cannot let the US culture be so very radically changed. Most who come here try to fit in as we would if we moved to Rome or or Tokyo. Why do we have to be on the defensive about this? Why are they testing us; pushing us? No other people seem to move around in the Western Countries and try to change them. Christian missionaries did not attempt to change the government of China, etc. They did try to teach treatment of people according to the ten commandments.
DarcsFalcon
July 15, 2010
Eventually all religious holidays except Islamic ones will be eliminated from schools.
The Ground Zero mosque. Always a mosque at their military victories. It is shameful that it was even proposed there.
samhenry
July 15, 2010
I’m not so sure the situation in the US is so bleak. I think people are at the end of their political correctness patience quota. I am tired of being intimidated and having our democracy thrown up in our face if we do not give in to Muslim demands and that is just what they are – demands. They are pushing the envelope and they know it. And at least once yesterday I heard them mention the Jews and the rights they enjoy. That is their primary focus. Eventually they condemn themselves out of their own mouths. Even the moderate Muslims seek to remain culturally unchanged when living in another country. We need to take the stands Sarkozy has. Everyone’s face needs to be on a driver’s license, etc. Not to have this is to let anyone into a county. Perhaps when scanners for fingerprints are implemented the picture will no longer be needed.
France has the largest Muslim population in Europe yet Sarkozy stood up to them and is trying to get a law passed to forbid women to cover their faces. Especially in times of terrorist activity, this is how things will have to be. Sadly, native European fertility is insufficient to even replace their numbers not add to it. Muslim fertility rates are growing their population. Do the math. Bye-bye European culture.
explorethegreekislands
July 19, 2010
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