Muslim Students Rally to Demand School Holidays

Islam is the fastest growing religion in NYC, and according to a Columbia University study, 120,000 of the school's 1.1 million students are Muslim. But the DOE does not recognize Islamic holidays on the school calendar, and Muslim students who miss school for religious holiday's have to make up for the schoolwork they missed. Last year the City Council passed a resolution calling for two Muslim holy days, Eid-ul Adha and Eid-ul Fitr, to be added to the school calendar, but Mayor Bloomberg, who has the final say in which holidays are approved, has not taken action.

So yesterday a group of Muslim parents, students and their supporters gathered Wednesday on the steps of City Hall to call on the mayor to respect the City Council's resolution. If you check out the NY1 segment, at the 15 second mark you'll see the most adorable, on-message little demonstrator ever, who said "We want to make our holiday like other people. We want to be equal like other people. It's not fair. We want to get our rights just like other people get their rights," said one student.

Asked about the protest, Bloomberg told reporters, "I'm sympathetic that they would like it, but the truth of the matter is, we need more school days, not less." But yesterday the protesters pointed out that the DOE was considering pushing back the first day of school to accommodate Rosh Hashanah, suggesting that the city was willing to accommodate other religions, but not theirs.

In solidarity with our Muslim brothers and sisters, here's a great video of Franz Ferdinand performing "Jacqueline" live in Holland:

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in News on July 1, 2010 1:19 PM

Comments [rss]

wow 14th street

Our country has a motto "IN God We Trust" it is

not in Allah we trust.

Islam is scary for a reason .

isla

We do need more days.

So we should go to year round school with additional breaks for summer just like the winter, mid-winter and spring breaks now. We get the days we need, holidays are respected, and I don't have to pay $450/week for summer camp for 2 months.

It's a win.

BDS=(Boycott.Divest.Sanction)

wow I just went to your pyschotic website.

the comments are really funny(insane), here's one

"I’m so glad that minaret is not going to be ‘playing’. I utterly believe it is a source of demonic influence. At the minimum they are very noisy. Can you imagine at 5:30am? Arabic is irritating to ears unfamiliar with the language since it contains only three vowels. Grating to the nerves! But that’s their secret desire with exception to their own obsession for it. Hence, the demonic influence. Yuck!"

then there were a bunch about throwing pigs blood on the land and crazy sh*t like that.

not really much I can say. it speaks for itself.

PKMKII

The spread of Islam throughout the Middle East was exponentially less violent than the spread of Christianity throughout Europe. While Islam was charging a tax for non-muslims in Islamic lands, the Catholic Church was burning people at the stake for not being Christian. Radical Islam as we know it today is a relatively recent occurrence.

What you're doing is selectively choosing the information and opinion that preform into your bigoted worldview. If you choose only the worst moments of a religion's history, and only quote its most radical adherents, you can make any religion sound dangerous.

ChristopherL

What speaks for itself is that you did not say a word about the actions of Muslims documented on my site. Your obvious ignorance on Islam and willingness to stay that way speaks for itself. There is a worldwide Sharia movement, and the best you can do is look for any reason to ignore it. Grow up.

FelixtheCat & Christine Quinn'

Eliminate all these religious holidays and have Humane education is schools.

NycChick

How were the Jews able to run the school system? Even in the 80's my history professor complained how they were running things.

inoyourider

School days off should be given like personal days, for the students and their families to use at their discretion.

isla

I think this is a fantastic idea.

School should reflect the real world, and it does a terrible job at it. We should start here.

NycChick

Jewish people must be running school system because school is always closed on their holidays.

What happen to the separation of church and state?

ChristopherL

Under Islam there is not seperation of Mosque, and state.

oofstar

is this a joke?

Jason

Just to tell you if you didn't know, Bloomberg is Jewish...

coach

"Muslim students who miss school for religious holiday's have to make up for the schoolwork they missed."

why wouldn't they have to make up the missed work? i'm confused. they shouldn't be penalized for their absence if it's due to a religious observation, but the schoolwork needs to be done regardless of why the student isn't in class. seems awfully entitled to argue any student shouldn't be responsible for school work missed due to a religious observation.

Gothampc

"But the DOE does not recognize Islamic holidays on the school calendar, and Muslim students who miss school for religious holiday's have to make up for the schoolwork they missed."

But if the kids were to call in sick, they'd have to make up the schoolwork as well. I'm not understanding why everyone has to take off for Islamic holidays. Can't they do like the Jews and just take off without school closing?

oofstar

a- why can't the christians do that?

b- in nyc, public schools get off several jewish holidays including jewish new year, yom kippur and passover.

Gothamist_Cynic

One way to solve this problem is do away with all national and religious holidays and make a law that allots everyone a certain amount of floating holidays every year to use as they wish.

maryjr

That would be an administrative nightmare

inoyourider

How is that more difficult than keeping track of the normal amount of absences?

m015094

That wouldn't work - they'd still miss school those days. I guess these kids will have to decide what more important: their schooling or believing in some fairy tale.