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| Bloomberg: Muslim Holy Days Shouldn't Be School Holidays |
| 2008-03-10 |
| When even Mayor Nanny says no, you know you're pushing it too far. Not that they won't try... Mayor Bloomberg is rejecting calls from lawmakers to make two Muslim holy days official school holidays, saying students cannot afford more days off. "The truth of the matter is we need more children in school," Mr. Bloomberg said yesterday. "More, not less." Council Member Robert Jackson of Manhattan, who is Muslim, and 12 co-sponsors introduced a resolution this year calling on the state to require that New York City students be given days off for the Muslim holidays of Eid Ul-Fitr, typically in October, and Eid Ul-Adha, which falls in December this year."Parents have had to make a decision on whether or not to send their students to school on the holiest day of the Muslim calendar, celebrating the month of the fast of Ramadan, or to send their kids to take a test," Mr. Jackson said in an interview. "That type of situation should not be." A 2004 Columbia University study estimated that 102,000 Muslim children attended city public schools, making them about 10% of the city's student population. State Senator John Sabini, who has sponsored legislation that would require city schools to recognize the two holidays, cited the growing Muslim population as the primary reason for the proposed changes. "I think that the Muslim population in schools is now large enough that we need to talk about it," Mr. Sabini, who represents parts of Queens, said in an interview. Mr. Bloomberg said that adding holidays could be a slippery slope that may lead students to miss too much school."When you have a city as diverse as we do, with virtually every religion known to man practiced, if we closed school for every single day there wouldn't be any school," he said. He added that he thought schools could still deal appropriately with students who need to take days off to practice their religion without adding official holidays. |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #8 Muslim Holy Days Shouldn't Be School Holidays In fact, they should make sure important exams fall on these days. >:-} |
| Posted by: gorb 2008-03-10 17:39 |
| #7 Let me repeat: Muslim Brotherhood in the infamous 1992 memorandum which spoke of the “grand Jihad” aimed at “eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.” |
| Posted by: ed 2008-03-10 16:36 |
| #6 Just another front in the all consuming jihad. The MSA: Segregation Not Integration This is in line with similar initiatives in the United States, where the Muslim Students Association carries, on the “Muslim Accommodations Task Force” page of its website, pdfs of pamphlets entitled “How to Achieve Islamic Holidays on Campus,” “How to Establish a Prayer Room on Campus,” and “How to Achieve Halal Food on Campus.” The MSA directs Muslim students to present these demands in the context of multiculturalism and civil rights. “Most campuses,” explains the publication on getting recognition of Islamic holy “include respecting diversity as a part of their mission statement. They consider enrollment of diverse students an asset to the community, as they enhance the classroom learning experience and enrich student life. Try to find these statements specific to your campus, and explain that recognition of Islamic holidays would serve as a practical example of upholding these ideals.” ... What’s more, the MSA, the chief proponent of the growing Muslim accommodations movement in the United States, was listed as a “friend” of the Muslim Brotherhood in the infamous 1992 memorandum which spoke of the “grand Jihad” aimed at “eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.” The victory of Allah’s religion over other religions is a Qur’anic imperative: “And fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is all for Allah” (8:39), and it is an inherently supremacist imperative, in which non-Muslims pay a special tax from which Muslims are exempt, the jizya, “with willing submission and feel themselves subdued” (9:29). |
| Posted by: ed 2008-03-10 16:34 |
| #5 nice, ice it's all part of jihad--to get institutions in the US to officially recognize and accommodate Islam is one of their goals good for Mayor Bloomberg |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2008-03-10 16:14 |
| #4 Good for him but a better message. "Leave Islam, convert to Christianity, burn your Qurans and join humanity". |
| Posted by: Icerigger 2008-03-10 15:35 |
| #3 When a sizable part of population havent the same holidays than the other part i think they should have their official holidays. 10% is not a sizable but maybe 25 or 30% starts to be. 10% is the magic number that represents the point at which Muslims start to demand special treatment. It's phase 2 of the The Plan. Phase 1 is just getting to the 10% mark. |
| Posted by: ThinempWhimble 2008-03-10 15:16 |
| #2 When a sizable part of population havent the same holidays than the other part i think they should have their official holidays. 10% is not a sizable but maybe 25 or 30% starts to be. |
| Posted by: Eohippus Hupomock2152 2008-03-10 14:56 |
| #1 The public school I went to was about 10% Jewish. The school did not close for Jewish holidays, but individual teachers could choose to schedule tests on other days, and to plan to repeat coverage of critical material the following day. *shrug* There are many costs to choosing to believe differently than the majority, one of which is having to work a little harder when schedules clash. I'm also willing to bet that the Muslim students are mostly clustered in certain neighborhoods and schools. Why should the rest have to give up learning time to accommodate those who are not there? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-03-10 14:16 |