Saqib Ali was demanding that the school include the Muslim holy day of Eid al-Adha on their calendar and close the school as is done on Christian holidays.
Instead, the Maryland school district chose to eliminate references to all religious holidays from their calendar, although the school will still close for the Christian and Jewish holidays.
While the schools could be viewed as fighting ‘creeping Shariah’ in their choice, they still changed for Islam. If they indeed did want to really fight they should have not allowed any change to take place within their schools whatsoever.
Muslim community leaders have been asking Montgomery school officials for years to close schools for at least one of the two major Muslim holidays.
It is unclear how many Muslim students attend Montgomery schools, but in 2013, Muslim community leaders urged Muslim families and their supporters to keep students home for Eid al-Adha, hoping that the number of absentees would be persuasive as they made their case for a school closing. Montgomery school officials reported that absences for that day — 5.6 percent of students and 5 percent of teachers — were only somewhat higher than a comparable day the previous week.
Students who miss classes on religious holidays are given excused absences. But Muslim families have argued that students should not have to choose between their faith and their schoolwork and that missing even a day leaves many students behind. They say the day off is a matter of equity, with Christian and Jewish students getting days off for their holidays.
But Tuesday’s outcome was not at all what Muslim leaders intended. They called the decision a surprise — and a glaring mistake.
“By stripping the names Christmas, Easter, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, they have alienated other communities now, and we are no closer to equality,” said Saqib Ali, a former Maryland state delegate and co-chair of the Equality for Eid Coalition. “It’s a pretty drastic step, and they did it without any public notification.”
Zainab Chaudry, also a co-chair of the coalition, expressed dismay, too, contending the school board’s members were willing to “go so far as to paint themselves as the Grinch who stole Christmas” to avoid granting equal treatment for the Muslim holiday.
Shujahat Aslam, an Imam, discusses the Muslim holy day of Eid al-Adha with Dr. Jon Hoover, a lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Nottingham, in 2011. (University of Nottingham)“They would remove the Christian holidays and they would remove the Jewish holidays from the calendar before they would consider adding the Muslim holiday to the calendar,” she said.
Muslim leaders had focused their efforts for the next school year on having the holiday of Eid al-Adha recognized with equal prominence on the published school calendar because the holiday falls on the same day as Yom Kippur, when Montgomery schools are already closed. They had said the step was symbolic but important.
Superintendent Joshua P. Starr presented the board with three options to resolve the question Tuesday, and a majority of members supported his recommended proposal to do away with the names of both the Muslim and the Jewish holidays on the calendar. But amending the proposal, the board opted to ditch references to Christmas and Easter, too.
no I would leave this state
Wake up america!!!
Wtf deport the traitor
because pres. is muslime luvr,u people don’t get it!
#%+^%#rs!
BAN ISLAM here in the USA.
no way
You can not remove these holidays because they are National Holidays. And Easter is a religious holiday Nationally.
I don’t understand all the “Damn Muslim” comments in this article. It’s as if some of you people don’t understand English. “Freedom of Religion” means that Muslims are free to practice their religion. And according to this article, the only thing that the Muslims in question had requested is that their holiday also be added to the calendar — nothing more and nothing less. They never requested for the other holidays to be removed. It was the school board who removed all of the holidays. Some Muslims are real pricks, but most Muslims that I have met throughout my life have been, by far, some of the nicest people. I think it’s terrible that the only ones that seem to be reported in the news are the ones who are assholes. I have friends in the military who are Muslims and who serve honorably. My mother has a Muslim cardiologist who is amazing and is one of the nicest people. And all of these people are moderately religious, though not zealots. But you people on here seem to have this hell-bent, illogical & xenophobic rage about you that comes out even when the basic story itself clearly states that “the Muslims” were NOT trying to get rid of the holidays. You guys should try clicking those last few remaining neurons together. 😉