Posted on 12/13/2004 8:27:50 PM PST by Kuksool
Political correct “diversity” advocates are often more solicitous of Muslim and non-Christian “holy days” than those celebrated by Christians, despite our nation’s Biblical heritage.
In Naperville, in my own back yard, school District 204 (Indian Prairie School District) not only tolerated but encouraged school remembrance of the Muslim holiday, Ramadan (which ended last month).
The following email was sent to administrators of School District 204 in Naperville-Aurora, urging special recognition of the Muslim holiday, Ramadan. I have yet to receive a return call from the author of the memo, Donna Crawford, Assistant Superintendent Elementary Education, asking if the same official respect has been accorded Christmas, as a Christian holy day. Emphasis is added:
"To: 204 Administration List
Subject: [204 Administration List] Ramadan begins 10/15
"Ramadan begins today and ends Nov 14th. For more than a billion Muslims around the world -- including some 8 million in North America -- Ramadan is a "month of blessing" marked by prayer, fasting, and charity. Ramadan observance focuses on self-sacrifice and devotion to Allah (God).
"For our Muslim students, staff and parents, please be mindful of fasting by offering alternative activity options during lunch period or other activities which may include food and beverages. Asking students about ways in which they may want to be accommodated is beneficial. Accommodations are especially important in regards to physical education classes. P.E. teachers may offer alternatives to rigorous physical exercise for the fasting students.
"Schools may also support Muslim students by arranging a place for prayer. The five essential times of prayer include: at first light and before sunrise, between the sun reaching it height and mid-afternoon, between mid-afternoon and sunset, after the sun has finished setting, in the dark of night.
"Students may also be absent from school for required religious observance. Some students will attend school after observing prayers.
"Other information about Ramadan .....
"Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. Islam uses a lunar calendar -- that is, each month begins with the sighting of the new moon. Because the lunar calendar is about 11 days shorter than the solar calendar used elsewhere, Islamic holidays "move" each year.
"Muslims practice sawm, or fasting, for the entire month of Ramadan. This means that they may eat or drink nothing, including water, while the sun shines. As with other Islamic duties, all able Muslims take part in sawm from about age twelve (when they reach puberty). During Ramadan Muslims get up early for suhoor, a meal eaten before the sun rises. After the sun sets, the fast is broken with a meal known as iftar. Iftar usually begins with dates and sweet drinks that provide a quick energy boost. Fasting serves many purposes. While they are hungry and thirsty, Muslims are reminded of the suffering of the poor. Fasting is also an opportunity to practice self-control and to cleanse the body and mind. And in this most sacred month, fasting helps Muslims feel the peace that comes from spiritual devotion as well as kinship with fellow believers.
"Ramadan ends with the festival of Eid al-Fitr, which in 2004 occurs on November 14. Literally the "Festival of Breaking the Fast," Eid al-Fitr is one of the two most important Islamic celebrations (the other occurs after the Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca). At Eid al-Fitr people dress in their finest clothes, adorn their homes with lights and decorations, give treats to children, and enjoy visits with friends and family. A sense of generosity and gratitude colors these festivities. Although charity and good deeds are always important in Islam, they have special significance at the end of Ramadan. As the month draws to a close, Muslims are obligated to share their blessings by feeding the poor and making contributions to mosques."
Donna Crawford
Assistant Superintendent Elementary Education
Indian Prairie School District 204
Phone 630.375.3025
Fax 630.375.3004
www.ipsd.org
____________________________________________________________________
Now, I'm all for ethnic diversity (my wife Cristina is half Lebanese, and the first in her family to be born in the USA). But isn't it interesting that in Muslim-dominated countries like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, Christians and other non-Muslims are persecuted, while here we not only encourage respect for other faiths but erase our own Judeo-Christian heritage? No healthy civilization censors its own noble history!
America's religious freedom and embrace of immigrants is part of what makes us a great nation, but what the ACLU and its secularist allies refuse to teach the next generation is that our national experiment in freedom was made possible by our Christian heritage. We must not allow those who would strip Christianity from our public life to triumph or it will hasten the moral collapse of our nation.
Thank you for standing for Biblical truth in the culture. May the God of Christmas bless you.
Sincerely in Christ,
Peter LaBarbera
Executive Director
Respond to: info@illinoisfamily.org
>>>However, the gay activists consider the Boy Scouts to be a greater threat than Osama.
I'm very disappointed that I don't see more threads about that here at FR.
Then again, how many causes can we fight? There are too many threads to keep track of as there is.
You've got it.
Evening to you MarMema!
Bump!
INTREP
This is the one comment that strikes me and leaves me dumbfounded.
For years I have been trying to understand and comprehend why it is that 'we' have become our worst enemy.
Intellectuals around the world are discussing this as we sit here now. They are sitting and watching a black comedy that has become almost unbearable to watch. Watching the fall of America from the outside is like watching a train wreck in slow motion.
What respect do you expect when the world looks at you, a superpower, as nothing more than a self-loathing, pompous behemoth, a doofus constantly tripping over your own shoelaces and walking into doors.
At first there was a slight tinge of pity, but that has turned as it becomes obvious that we are in fact getting our just deserts. Seriously, How can you respect someone who has no respect for themselves?
At a time when America needs to show strengh, solidarity and leadership to the world we show only our flaws, weakness and apathy thereby emboldening our adversaries and demoralizing those who once stood by our side.
Remind you of any television show recently?
Americans want to be liked and loved. Constantly questioning themselves, concerned about 'world opinion', consensus and how the world sees them. "Why do they hate us so much?", Americans ask all the while never understanding that the prequisite to love is respect or even the realization that it is fact better to respected than loved.
There is no respect anymore. No respect for power, no respect for authority. No respect for anything and this is the problem. We need to accept that people and countries around the world don't need to like us in order to respect us.
Pakistan is flexing, testing the limits and jockying for position and status but at the same time not showing any respect.
What would Tony Soprano do?
That's what this is all about.
I'm in agreement with your idea of mass exodus. If that occured, Christianity would be restored to its' rightful place as the foundation of our nations' culture since Christians are the majority religion in America. The other religious groups would still be free to worship as they please, but the cultural suicide now being forced upon America via multiculturalists would be ended.
When I lived on Okinawa, we Americans were free to celebrate our holidays. But there was never any question that Okinawan festivals were for the celebration of their religious holy days and not for ours as well. And that's the way it should be.
Radical Islam's 'plan' to take over America - Arab-American author outlines secret 20-year strategy to undermine country
The Islamic States of America?
Misunderstanding the Enemy: the Islamic Threat and the U.S. Media
CAIR: 'Moderate' friends of terror
An Open Letter to Islamic Organizations in America
Islamic terror based on Qu’ran: ex-CIA official
A Seat at the Table: Islam Makes Inroads in Education
Spreading Islam in American Public Schools
Islamist Threat to Public Schools in Columbia, South Carolina?
--Omar Ahmed, Chairman of the Board of CAIR (Council of American Islamic Relations), San Ramon Valley Herald, July 1998
Ping
Where is the ACLU? A suit should be filed against them for an obvious agenda that only pertains to a vandetta against Christianity singularly.
That would be a concern if any student in this country had to be in school on Christmas Day. Ramadan overlaps with normal school days.
Where is the ACLJU?
This is a governmental body installing a religion at this school!
Where is the separation of State and Religion with this action?
As does its Christian equivalent, Lent.
i thank god that i live in a decent country that holds true its beliefs - maybe all these yanks should emigrate to europe and the UK - at least we still have christmas and easter.
thats right yanks, much as you constantly go on about 'Eurabia' and the islamic 'hordes' coming over our borders, we're the ones with christmas and easter holidays and prayers and hymm singing in our state schools.
ring us back when its the same stateside.
Hmm - I hadn't thought of that. Very clever of them.
Hateful POS /*^!%$!!#s.
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