[ARABNEWS] New York marks a milestone in the fight for equality Thursday when 1.1 million children in America's largest school district will take the day off to mark Eid Al-Adha.
It is a small but hard-won victory at a time when American Moslems complain of growing Islamophobia ...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do... and worsening anti-Moslem rhetoric following the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
For the first time, more than 1,800 public schools in New York will close for the Moslem feast of sacrifice, a day after also closing for Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled the new policy in March, announcing that New York public schools would get two days off for Eid Al-Fitr, which falls during the summer, and Eid Al-Adha, in addition to major Christian and Jewish holidays.
Since then, city hall has added a further day off -- February 8, 2016 -- for Lunar New Year, celebrated by Asian-Americans.
"It is a huge victory to actually see the day come," says Linda Sarsour, a member of the Coalition for Moslem School Holidays and a New York activist with three children.
"As a holy man as well as a parent I am very happy," agreed Imam Shamsi Ali, director of the Jamaica Moslem Center in Queens.
"I'm sure this kind of policy from the government side will push Moslems further to feel a sense of belonging," he said.
10 million Moslems Moslem New York parents previously faced a quandary: keep their children at home to observe the holiday and skip class, or send them to school and let celebrations fall by the wayside.
There are an estimated seven to 10 million Moslems in America,
of whom a million are believed to live in New York -- about 10 percent of the city's population.
Algebra problem: if the current Muslim population of the U.S is actually something like 3 million instead of the claimed 10 million, what would the actual Muslim population of New York City be if it is claimed to be 1 million?
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.
Activists hope that embracing Eid in the school calendar will make Islam more mainstream and counter Islamophobia.
"It's a very tense time," Sarsour told AFP. "No one can talk about Islam without talking about terrorism."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/24/2015 00:00 ||
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Eid 'festivities' and Car-B-Ques coming to a city near you soon.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
09/24/2015 9:33 Comments ||
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Well it isn't as if they teach anything in school anyway...
Conservative YouTube sensation CJ Pearson, a 13-year-old black middle schooler from Georgia, revealed today that he's been blocked from following President Obama on Twitter. He's also unable to view the president's tweets.
"It's an honor," Pearson tells The American Mirror, insisting he did nothing to warrant being blocked, except his most recent video released last week: It's for (some of) the children!
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Now who's being the child?
