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NJ Schools Add Muslim Holiday to Day-Off List
1010 Wins ^ | Nov 14, 2003 2:38 pm US/Eastern | 1010 Wins

Posted on 11/14/2003 1:10:25 PM PST by Calpernia

Add Eid to the list of religious holidays that can get students a day off from school in some communities.

This Essex County district will become one of only a handful of districts in the nation to close schools on a major Islamic holiday, the Eid-al-Fitr on Nov. 26. Paterson and Trenton schools also close that day.

Public schools across the nation have traditionally closed for major Christian holidays including Christmas and several days before or after Easter, and many also close for Jewish holidays as well.

Now, with Islam emerging as one of the fastest-growing religions in the United States, some school districts with significant Muslim populations are recognizing the Eid holidays.

"Up to now, the major holidays have either been Christian or Jewish," said Frank Belluscio, a spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association. "But now we're diversifying, and I'm sure this is something we'll see other districts doing in the future."

Irvington, 2.9-square-mile community adjacent to Newark, is the latest to give students off for the Eid, which celebrates the end of Ramadan, the holiest month of the year for Muslims.

Superintendent of Schools Ernest Smith said community leaders convinced the school board that sufficient numbers of students and teachers observe the holiday and planned to be absent from school on the Eid holiday.

Paterson, with its large Arab-American population, started giving students off for Eid about three years ago.

"Members of the Muslim community came forward and requested we consider doing it," said Patricia Chalmers, a school district spokeswoman. "It really came from the community itself, and we were one of the first in the nation to do it."

Trenton has closed its schools for Eid for nearly a decade, a school official said.

In Michigan, Dearborn schools started closing for Eid in 2001, and the Crestwood school district agreed this year to close on Eid as well.

Other New Jersey municipalities with significant Muslim populations still do not close for Eid, including Newark, Jersey City and Camden.

The Eid holiday is slowly gaining in American public consciousness as well. The U.S. Postal Service recently introduced an Eid stamp.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events; US: New Jersey; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: eid; muslim; newjersey; nj; paterson; publicschools; trenton
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To: browardchad
>I was just wondering how long it will take to add September 11 to the calendar as a holiday -- not to honor the dead, but as the first major victory for Islam in America.

They already produced a postage stamp in honor of the attack.
The stamp was orginially issued on Sept 1, 2001. Look at the Eid (Die) stamp and tell me you don't see the Twin Towers burning.

21 posted on 11/14/2003 1:25:51 PM PST by Dialup Llama
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To: Calpernia
Great, one more example of our enemies allowing us to destroy our country ourselves. One day when we are on the verge of a Civil War, the whole of the country will wake up when it's too late and ask the question - "How did we allow this to happen to ourselves"?
22 posted on 11/14/2003 1:27:12 PM PST by capydick (Where did all these Useful Idiots come from?)
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To: Calpernia
Welcome to the State of New Arabia.
23 posted on 11/14/2003 1:28:16 PM PST by auboy (If frogs had wings, it would be raining warts.)
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To: Salman
Probably. Why keep the school open if no one is going to show up?

A district near me tried to do away with Good Friday. Teachers and students said they wouldn't be in that day. They closed the schools.
24 posted on 11/14/2003 1:29:44 PM PST by ladylib
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To: Dialup Llama
I do see what you are referring too; but I would want to see what the actual translation is before I assumed it was the towers. Honestly could be coincidence.
25 posted on 11/14/2003 1:30:01 PM PST by Calpernia (Innocence seldom utters outraged shrieks. Guilt does.)
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To: Calpernia
This is how Muslims take over countries.

Just ask France.
26 posted on 11/14/2003 1:30:08 PM PST by MonroeDNA (Please become a monthly donor!!! Just $3 a month--you won't miss it, and will feel proud!)
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To: Calpernia
Islam is not the fastest-growing religion in America. Islam is the fastest-growing hate group in America.
27 posted on 11/14/2003 1:31:36 PM PST by get'emall
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To: Salvation
They need to be FReeped about the public money they receive. And how they should respond to the LARGER public voice! Ours!

It's this type of hysteria that gives FReepers a bad name.

There was a similar article about a school in Dearborn, MI earlier this week, and the same hysterical FReeper reaction.

If the school does not have a certain percentage of students attend on a given day, it does not legally count as a day of instruction. Schools need to provide so many days of instruction per year, by state law. If they hold school on a day and enough students stay home, the day and all the salaries and utility bills are wasted taxpayer money.

Cause they'll have to add another day to the calendar to make up for this day.

This is true whether the holiday that kids stay home for is Christmas, Festivus, or Eid. It has nothing to do with the school recognizing a religion.

It has everything to do with not wasting time and money. FReepers usually think not wasting taxpayer money is a good thing.

SD

28 posted on 11/14/2003 1:40:26 PM PST by SoothingDave
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To: Calpernia
>I do see what you are referring too; but I would want to see what the actual translation is before I assumed it was the towers. Honestly could be coincidence.

Alot of people think that. But decorative calligraphy is not printing. The artist can form shapes and pictures out of the letters in almost any way he wants. The stamp looks like the Twin Towers because the calligrapher made them look that way.

29 posted on 11/14/2003 1:42:10 PM PST by Dialup Llama
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To: Rummyfan
Do they close for Rosh Hoshanna? Yom Kippur? Good Friday? What a load of bs!

Yes, they do. Try reading the article.

Public schools across the nation have traditionally closed for major Christian holidays including Christmas and several days before or after Easter, and many also close for Jewish holidays as well.

(The only "BS" is the "re-naming" of these holidays, as noted. "Winter Break" falls during Christmas and "Spring Break" falls during Easter. It's not a coincidence.)

SD

30 posted on 11/14/2003 1:42:42 PM PST by SoothingDave
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To: Calpernia
Ok, so do the Islamic Schools give anyone off for Jewish or Christian holidays?

Is our goal to emulate the Islamists? Or are we trying to be a civilization?

SD

31 posted on 11/14/2003 1:43:38 PM PST by SoothingDave
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To: Dialup Llama
Ok, your point bothers me. I still want to know the translation of those symbols, letters, or characters before I believe that.
32 posted on 11/14/2003 1:45:21 PM PST by Calpernia (Innocence seldom utters outraged shrieks. Guilt does.)
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To: Calpernia
Islam the fastest growing religion in the US??? In prisons maybe.

I have read reports that Paganism is the fastest growing religion...so I suppose we will start seeing Samhain, Beltaine, Imbolg and Ostara popping up as recognized school holidays, right?
33 posted on 11/14/2003 1:45:55 PM PST by FeliciaCat
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To: SoothingDave
I don't understand what you said.
34 posted on 11/14/2003 1:46:09 PM PST by Calpernia (Innocence seldom utters outraged shrieks. Guilt does.)
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To: Dialup Llama
"Alot of people think that. But decorative calligraphy is not printing. The artist can form shapes and pictures out of the letters in almost any way he wants. The stamp looks like the Twin Towers because the calligrapher made them look that way." You ignore the fact that the stamp was issued before 9/11, and that the calligraphy would have been done many months before the stamp was issued.
35 posted on 11/14/2003 1:46:49 PM PST by MineralMan (godless atheist)
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To: Calpernia

 

36 posted on 11/14/2003 1:47:54 PM PST by VU4G10 (Have You Forgotten?)
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To: Calpernia
There is nothing odd about the translation. Snopes says -On these days, Muslims wish each other "Eid mubarak," the phrase featured in Islamic calligraphy on the stamp. "Eid mubarak" translates literally as "blessed festival," and can be paraphrased as "May your religious holiday be blessed."

Whats odd is not the meaning of the words but they way they appear.

37 posted on 11/14/2003 1:49:55 PM PST by Dialup Llama
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To: VU4G10

And a Allah Akbar to you too.

38 posted on 11/14/2003 1:49:59 PM PST by Calpernia (Innocence seldom utters outraged shrieks. Guilt does.)
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To: Calpernia
Red Cross bans Jesus - Bosses fearful of offending minority faiths

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1021000/posts

 

39 posted on 11/14/2003 1:51:27 PM PST by VU4G10 (Have You Forgotten?)
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To: MineralMan
> You ignore the fact that the stamp was issued before 9/11, and that the calligraphy would have been done many months before the stamp was issued.

You mean the same way muslim schoolchildren in NJ knew in advance to bring cameras to school to take pictures of the attack?

40 posted on 11/14/2003 1:51:45 PM PST by Dialup Llama
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