NY Muslims campaign for School 'Eid

NY Muslims campaign for school `Eid

16/09/2009 06:00:00 AM GMT


(IOL) This city is supposedly the most diverse city in the world. The city's laws and rules have to reflect that, said Muslim Councilman Jackson.


CAIRO — Muslims in the U.S. city of New York are campaigning to add two of their holiest days on public schools’ holiday calendar just as schools do for Christians and Jews, pledging to take the case to the political arena in a battle with the mayor who adamantly opposes the idea.

"This city is supposedly the most diverse city in the world,” Councilman Robert Jackson, a Muslim from the borough of Manhattan, told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, September 15.

“The city's laws and rules have to reflect that."

Muslims groups in the city are pressing officials to close public schools on `Eid al-Fitr and `Eid Al-Adha, the two main religious festivals on the Islamic calendar.
They have escalated their campaign as the holy fasting month of Ramadan nears its end, hoping that officials would respond and their kids would have the chance to celebrate `Eid al-Fitr which marks the end of Ramadan.

New York City public schools, the country’s largest school system, already close for Christmas and the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
A one week spring break is also scheduled to coincide with Easter and Passover.
The lack of `eid holiday leaves families with the option of not sending their kids to schools during `eid. Others opt to postpone their celebrations to the following weekend.

City schools contend that they permit students to stay home on days when they are celebrating a religious holiday.

But Muslim families, like Linda Sarsour’s, say their children feel slighted when they choose to stay home from class to practice their Muslim faith.
Recognizing the holy days "is about being accepted in our community," Sarsour, a mother of three, said.

According to the Coalition for Muslim School Holidays, Muslim students make up approximately 12 percent of the students in New York City’s public schools.
Elsewhere across the US, recognizing Muslim religious holidays is gaining ground.
Dearborn, Michigan, where nearly half of the 18,000 students are Muslim, is believed to be the first city to close school on Muslim festivals.
Several cities in New Jersey now close school on Muslim holy days.

• Political battle

Muslims’ fervent campaign has persuaded New York officials to reconsider their demand.

"He has charged a number of people with thinking about this," said Fatima Shama, the newly appointed immigrant-affairs commissioner of the city Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Bloomberg, who has the final say to designate school days off, is resolutely opposed to recognizing Muslim holidays in schools.

When City Council passed after much lobbying a nonbinding resolution in June allowing all public schools to close on `Eid al-Fitr and `Eid Al-Adha, Bloomberg firmly rejected the proposal.

He has claimed it was a slippery slope for other religious groups to ask for days off from school as well.

"One of the problems you have with a diverse city is that if you close the schools for every single holiday, there won’t be any school," he recently said.
But Muslims are pledging to take Bloomberg’s adamancy on a political aspect.
Bloomberg, seeking a third term as mayor, has steadily courted the endorsement of ethnic and religious groups.

Muslim activists are warning that their community might withhold their votes in the November election if the mayor doesn't heed their wishes.

"I am hoping that pressure from the Muslim community will help Mayor Bloomberg decide, in the best interest of himself politically, to incorporate these two holidays," Says Jackson, the Muslim councilman.

Source: IslamOnline