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New York schools may close for Muslim holidays

JoeTrumps said:
Your the reason people send their kids to private schools. When the liberals are done Christmas won't even be a holiday anymore. sad, really. but dogs bark, fish swim, and libs....cancel christmas
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So for you Christmas is such a shallow thing, that someone else can cancel it for you. Perhaps this is something you should be bothering your pastor, preacher, rabbi, whatever since it seems he/she is the one failing you, not liberals.
 
trfjr said:
so what does it cost you? what skin do you have in the game? why do you even give a dam?
just the whinings of a brat not wanting someone to have something you don't believe in
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Your attempt to squirm out of your false claims is humorous. Anyways, now that we have shown that schools being closed because of religious reasons does not mean less taxes - it begs the question. Do you pay taxes? ;) It doesn't sound as if you do. ;)
 
Hatuey said:
Nope, to the religious. More specifically to the religious in power - which is why there is a selective remembrance of religious events. We don't stop schools for the faiths of every religious movement. We stop it for those which are decreed to be important to some religious. And yet if we were to go by your incredibly low standards of what is and isn't significant, we could find an excuse to basically have the entire year off due to what was it? The "cultural, social and academic" significant of every event which fits your description.
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Look, my only argument is that religious holidays have significance beyond their religious significance. This is a fact. Are you denying this? It sounds like you're denying this which is absurd. I hope, for your sake, that you're not.
 
Okay, I just have to wonder how this thread would be different if Hautey had opined, "Muslims holidays are a great idea! We need to be sure they feel included in our communities."

Now mind you, I agree with Hautey, though I believe he is wrong, there are currently no religious holidays off at any public school I know of. Christmas falls during Winter Break, but isn't itself a separate day off and WB includes another holiday, so it's not exclusive to Christmas. That said, I think it should stay that way.

My thought though is that had Hautey opened differently, this thread would've turned into a "how dare those Muslims..." kind of thread instead. Clearly can't be proven, but it's what I think.
 
ThePlayDrive said:
Look, my only argument is that religious holidays have significance beyond their religious significance.
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Good, that's not the reason for which they are taken off the schedule - to pretend it is - is outright dishonest. They're not taking off Muslim, Christian and Jewish holidays because of what they mean historically or culturally. You could even argue that historically, Muslim and Jewish holidays mean jack **** to the overwhelming majority of Americans. They're in the same realm Kwaanzaa and Buddhism. Which only strengthens my point that this is a selective celebration mean to please some groups at the expense of every other kid in the system.
 
Hatuey said:
Good, that's not the reason for which they are taken off the schedule - to pretend it is - is outright dishonest. They're not taking off Muslim, Christian and Jewish holidays because of what they mean historically or culturally. You could even argue that historically, Muslim and Jewish holidays mean jack **** to the overwhelming majority of Americans. They're in the same realm Kwaanzaa and Buddhism. Which only strengthens my point that this is a selective celebration mean to please some groups at the expense of every other kid in the system.
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You're on a tangent. Do you now renounce your original claim that religious holidays are only significant to the religious?
 
Hatuey said:
New York schools may close for Muslim holidays





This is the problem with mixing religion and state. If you want your kids celebrating your religious holidays, they can go to religious charter schools - or better yet - don't bring them to school that day. You don't have a right to make everyone else observe your religious events.
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I agree they should give kids 5 days a year they can take off for personal reasons. We all do not need to stop what we are doing for your religion, but we are happy you enjoy it and go celebrate with your people.
 
tererun said:
I agree they should give kids 5 days a year they can take off for personal reasons. We all do not need to stop what we are doing for your religion, but we are happy you enjoy it and go celebrate with your people.
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Oh I like that a LOT! Excellent solution!
 
ThePlayDrive said:
You're on a tangent. Do you now renounce your original claim that religious holidays are only significant to the religious?
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Nope. :shrug: You created a standard for significance which is completely irrelevant to why they're made into holidays.
 
On one page this does seem fair but then again as the OP brings up why not just take your kids to a religious school or dont make them come to school that day. Im mixed about this, both arguments make sense.
 
Mason66 said:
I have never seen a public school close on Jewish holidays.

When I was in school, I stayed home on those days and brought a note the next day just like everybody else did.

Why would the Christians get a Jewish Holiday off and why would anybody but a Muslim get their days off.

Why are Muslims so special as to close the whole school and put every other student behind for that day?
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Muslims aren't any more special than the Christians whose holidays get official recognition.

Besides, there is literally no cause to worry about anyone falling behind, just end school for the year a couple of days later. Ta-da!
 
Summerwind said:
Actually, most school districts have their asses covered with that one, they don't have a Christmas holiday off. In fact, they have a winter break and Christmas just happens to fall there, but so does New Years Eve so it isn't a Christmas holiday, it's a Winter Break. I notice that Easter used to be within the Spring Break but that doesn't seem to be always true anymore, and no other day seems to be off if Easter doesn't fall within the Spring Break.
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I don't care what they call it now, a rose by any other name is still a rose.
 
TacticalEvilDan said:
Muslims aren't any more special than the Christians whose holidays get official recognition.
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The only Christian holiday that can be argued for is Christmas.
 
Harshaw said:
The only Christian holiday that can be argued for is Christmas.
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I'm not sure I understand.

My immediate thought was Easter in addition to Christmas.

Did I misinterpret your statement?
 
Summerwind said:
I totally see your point. I think though truly it is expanded to anyone obviously Middle Eastern regardless of religion. I don't think it will ever be as bad since more folks are more vocal, like yourself, than they were for blacks back in the day.
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There were plenty of vocal people involved in the civil rights movement. The problem wasn't silence, it was the general acceptance of the attitudes that had to be resisted. Seems like every time I turn around, resentment to all of Islam has picked up a little more steam.
 
Hatuey said:
This is the problem with mixing religion and state. If you want your kids celebrating your religious holidays, they can go to religious charter schools - or better yet - don't bring them to school that day. You don't have a right to make everyone else observe your religious events.
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The funny thing is, my only issue with this is that it's "Out of Respect for Islam". The schools shouldn't be dictating their holiday schedules based on "respect" for any religion.

Now if the school wants to establish that a certain percentage of the school population being absent would constitute a significant disruption and distraction to the educational process, and then provide a reasonable argument that a particular religious holiday is likely to cause that percentage of absent students to be met, I'd understand and accept a school changing their "off days" schedule to account for that.
 
TacticalEvilDan said:
I don't care what they call it now, a rose by any other name is still a rose.
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Well that's entirely foolish. Winter Break would be when it is regardless of Christmas. There a so many religions that have year end holidays, it's sor tof respectful to all, and though Christmas has been the sole focus, and perhaps Hanaka, but it's expanding and schools to avoid issues are starting to use the year end to learn about religions rather than practice them... It's coming along. Besides that teachers would demand a holiday about then, they need the break. So the break would happen either way, might be a week or offset, but it'd be roughly right where it is. So you can rant, but it really isn't a rose anymore, in most public schools.
 
tererun said:
I agree they should give kids 5 days a year they can take off for personal reasons. We all do not need to stop what we are doing for your religion, but we are happy you enjoy it and go celebrate with your people.
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Quoted because I could only like it once.
 
Harshaw said:
When are schools let out for Easter?
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They create a buffer zone so families can celebrate the holiday on the Friday prior (Good Friday) and the Monday after (often referred to as Easter Monday).
 
Summerwind said:
Well that's entirely foolish. Winter Break would be when it is regardless of Christmas. There a so many religions that have year end holidays, it's sor tof respectful to all, and though Christmas has been the sole focus, and perhaps Hanaka, but it's expanding and schools to avoid issues are starting to use the year end to learn about religions rather than practice them... It's coming along. Besides that teachers would demand a holiday about then, they need the break. So the break would happen either way, might be a week or offset, but it'd be roughly right where it is. So you can rant, but it really isn't a rose anymore, in most public schools.
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When you establish a break in the school schedule for a religious holiday, changing what you call that break doesn't change what the break is -- a religious holiday break.
 
TacticalEvilDan said:
We got an Easter break when I was in school. I realize it's called something else now, but that doesn't change anything.
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Fiddytree said:
They create a buffer zone so families can celebrate the holiday on the Friday prior (Good Friday) and the Monday after (often referred to as Easter Monday).
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Which schools do this? I know of few, if any, which don't simply schedule a spring break around the same week every year whether or not it actually coordinates with Easter, the date of which varies considerably from year to year.
 
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