"We’re going to be the majority soon!"For background, read Muslims in Washington, D.C. Force Christmas Off School Calendar
-- Female Muslim (told School Board)
"We the people believe in our rights that the constitution have gave us and we will stand up for our rights. I will not back down."
-- Jessica Abdelnabbi Berrocal, Muslim parent
Also read myriad examples of public schools favoring Islam.
-- From "Jersey City School Board Meeting Gets Heated During Debate Over Closing for Muslim Holiday" by Brian Thompson, WNBC-TV4 (New York, NY) 9/17/15
The Jersey City Board of Education had originally proposed to close schools next Thursday so that Muslim students could observe the [Eid al-Adha] holiday, and the City Council unanimously supported it a week ago. The academic year would have extended one day to June 23, 2016 as a result.
But during the nearly four hours of debate at the board meeting Thursday, some of the Jewish faith said they felt they were being discriminated against because they weren't getting their own school days off for holidays like Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
In the original resolution announcing the vote, the board said it was "committed to honoring the great diversity of our district, including our religious diversity," and that it will "continue to engage our communities to explore ways to support its diverse communities and celebrate our many cultures and faiths."
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From "Jersey City won't close school for Islamic holiday" by Laura Herzog, New Jersey Star-Ledger 9/19/15
On Friday, Jersey City Schools Superintendent Marcia Lyles said board members were concerned that it would be too disruptive to declare a new school holiday without more advance notice.
On Saturday, Jessica Abdelnabbi Berrocal, a Muslim parent in Jersey City who started the petition for the holiday in June, said she thinks the vote rather meant that "they aren't ready for the change."
Lyles's Chief of Staff Maryann Dickar, who also attended the meeting, said it is inaccurate to characterize the debate on the holiday as "a conflict between Jews and Muslims." She said she recalled only one statement that referenced the Jewish holiday, among "hundreds" of other comments.
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From "New York City Schools Observing Muslim Holiday For First Time" by Julia Glum, International Business Times 9/23/15
New York City public schools were scheduled to close Thursday for their first time recognizing the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha. The district, which serves about 1.1 million students, was due to become the largest school system in the United States to shut down for the observance. Local Muslims welcomed the move as a symbol of the community's acceptance and shift toward inclusion, Agence France Presse reported.
New York City has an estimated 600,000 to 1 million Muslim residents, and between 10 and 12 percent of its public school students identify as Muslim. That means that holy days tended to devastate attendance -- for example, the last time Eid al-Adha was on a school day, more than one-third of PS/IS 30 in Brooklyn was absent, according to a news release.
About two years after first agreeing to give students the day off, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the calendar change in March. He officially canceled classes on Eid al-Fitr, which occurred in July and marked the end of the fasting month Ramadan, and Eid al-Adha. Eid al-Adha, also called the Feast of Sacrifice, runs from Wednesday night to Thursday night. Schools in New York City were already closed Wednesday for the Jewish observance of Yom Kippur.
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Also read New York Schools Observe Muslim Holidays, but Christmas?
From "Muslim Americans welcome first NY Eid school holiday" by AFP 9/23/15
“It is a huge victory to actually see the day come,” says Linda Sarsour, a member of the Coalition for Muslim School Holidays and a New York activist with three children.
“As an imam as well as a parent I am very happy,” agreed Imam Shamsi Ali, director of the Jamaica Muslim Center in Queens.
“I’m sure this kind of policy from the government side will push Muslims further to feel a sense of belonging,” he said.
New York follows at least seven other school districts that close for Eid in New Jersey, Massachusetts and Vermont, but activists are still campaigning in other parts of the country.
Ibrahim Hooper, spokesperson for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the country’s largest Muslim civil liberties organization, agreed that the holiday comes at the right time.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Also read Texas Sharia Tribunal Judge Gives Muslim Prayer at Rodeo
And read Muslim Prayer Ends Invocation Policy in North Carolina
In addition, read President Obama Praises Islam for Making America What It Is
