NJ Schools Add Muslim Holiday to Day-Off List

1010 Wins ^ | Nov 14, 2003 2:38 pm US/Eastern | 1010 Wins

[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.

[Sloth]

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

Source? Sounds like the same tripe from nutty Muslims about Jews staying home from work at the WTC.

[Calpernia]

Uh oh, LonePalm has competition in the parody department!

[Coleus]

Irvington is a black town where most were Baptists and Methodists. Seems Farrakhan has been spending his billions wisely while proselytizing his militant, anti-white form of Islam to the black community.

[StriperSniper]

Actually, the dealers there were pretty cool. I had to make a delivery there and the ones I ran into were very polite. They all apologized when I told them that wasn't what I was there for.(And the dimes looked phat ;-)

[SoothingDave]

Actually, since you are not from NJ, and you don't know the corruption that has run amuck here, that is not a question you can poise to me about ME wanting to waste tax payers money.

Huh? This has nothing to do with it, unless your argument it "we waste a lot of money anyway, so I support wasting it in this case."

That's a silly argument. Waste is waste.

Plus, I believe you posted the pretense of most of the children being absent from school that day anyway to change the argument to about me wanting to waste tax payers money.

The argument is about whether it makes sense for this school to close on this day. From the article (it would help if you read it):

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.

So, it seems that the factor of how many student would miss the day is the detemining factor. It's not a "pretense." I didn't change the argument, you did. The school is making a rational decision, and certain elements here want to make it about something else.

Why don't you trying supporting that theory first; then I'll engage with you about me wanting to waste tax payers money.

I just did. I read the article.

Now, what do you think the decision is about, and why do you support wasting taxpayer money?

SD

[Political Junkie Too]

Wouldn't separation of church and state as defind by the left demand that ALL religious holidays be abandoned by the schools?

-PJ

[Lijahsbubbe]

You are right, we do have bigger problems then this. This just urks me.

We sure do, and what are our biggest problems from right now? - Muslims. There, I said it. Muslims, Muslims, Muslims. We have no business printing a stamp, or even acknowledging a day that this death cult honors. We can pretend all we want about the "peaceful religion' propaganda, but it is the Muslim religion in the Mid East that is spinning out of control, and is spreading its destruction to the West. It's the Muslim religion that honors its Quran with the Sharia Law that would have us all bending over and kissing our butts goodbye if it could.

I'm with you all the way on being irked.

[Calpernia]

Generally it is the users you have to worry about. From my experiences, as long as you are respectful to the dealers that approach, they are respectful back (taking into account they are selling drugs)

[knuthom]

The Eid holiday ...

Why are they allowed to call it the "Eid holiday", but have to use "Winter break" and "Spring break" instead of Christmas and Easter?

[GSWarrior]

Why not combine it with Thanksgiving?

[Calpernia]

I read it. It said community leaders. It is not the stats for children absent.

If a school has a certain number of children absent, it is state law to close.

Notice again, it said community leaders, not school reporting absent.

I'm off for dinner now. I'll be back later.

[halfdome]

Why would an Islamic school give anyone a day off for Jewish or Christian holidays? Do Jewish schools give anyone a day off for Islamic or Christian holidays? Do Christian schools give anyone a day off for Jewish or Muslim holidays? The schools in question are not religious schools.

[Bon mots]

[Salvation]

Thanks for your input!

[RightWingAtheist]

He sees in that stamp what Frederic Wertheim saw in comic books :)

I wonder if anyone here remembers what it was like to be a kid, where it didn't matter how few members of a certain religion there were in school, you WANTED the school to make "their" day a holiday for everyone so you could goof off :)

[RightWingAtheist]

A friend of mine is the principle of a Catholic school in a city with one of Canada's largest Muslim populations, and a large number of his students are Lebanese and African Muslims (who speak French). When he speaks to the parents about trying to accomodate their religious practices, they usually just say "it's OK. If we stayed back home, we would have sent them to Catholic schools anyways."

[Salman]

Why are they allowed to call it the "Eid holiday"

"Eid holiday" is redundant. "Eid" just means holiday.

[At _War_With_Liberals]

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

The infiltration continues unabated. Just wait until they are Dim judges.

[ChicagoHebrew]

I don't support Public schools giving off for non Christian holidays.

Dude, public school's aren't Christian schools. Accordingly, the decisions about which days to give off must be dictated by practicality. I went to a public high school that was about 30% Jewish, both students and teachers. The school couldn't function if 1/3 children and teachers didn't show up on Yom Kippur and Rosh HaShana, so they closed the school. That simple. For the same reason, even the Friends school (which, despite its affiliation, was also about 30% Jewish) in my neighborhood gave off for Yom Kippur. Of course, all these schools gave off for major Christian holidays too.

Conversely, the Catholic school with basically zero Jewish students/teachers didn't give off for Jewish holidays, and the Jewish school, with zero Christian students/teachers, didn't give off for Christian holidays.

Similarly, if a school in NJ or Detroit has a large Muslim population, it's inefficient to hold school on Eid because a lot of people won't show up. Not only will the school have a hell of a time finding enough substitute teachers, but lessons learned that day to the Christian/Jewish students will basically have to be retaught the day after.

[ChicagoHebrew]

Actually, the schools (public) in the Jewish communities here by me do. BUT, the private jewish schools don't close for the Christian Holidays.

You're comparing apples to oranges. The more appropriate question would be: do the Christian schools give off for Jewish holidays? Unless they are Friends schools with large Jewish populations, I doubt it-- they have no reason to. Similarly, the Jewish schools, with 100% Jewish populations, have no need to acknowledge Christian holidays.