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New York schools may close for Muslim holidays

Hatuey

Hatuey

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New York schools may close for Muslim holidays

Schools in New York, the biggest city in the U.S., might be about to implement shutdowns on certain Muslim holy days, as both mayoral candidates running for City Hall have said they support such a move.

A report in the New York Daily News says that Bill de Blasio, the Democrat, and Joe Lhota, his Republican opponent, believe both Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha should be added to the holiday calendar along with other major religious observations, including Christmas, Good Friday and Rosh Hashanah.

De Blasio, who was speaking in Brooklyn at a campaign event, said the closings should be done out of respect for Islam. The report says an estimated 13% of New York's pupils are Muslim.
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However, in other parts of the nation with large Muslim populations, like Dearborn, Mich., some schools do account for Muslim holidays and close the classrooms. Massachusetts and Vermont contain districts that shut schools for some Muslim holidays, and the Washington, D.C., suburb of Montgomery County, Md., is seeing an effort underway to adopt a similar policy.
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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.
 
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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so who is forcing you to observe anything it is just a day off
 
trfjr said:
so who is forcing you to observe anything it is just a day off
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By closing down the schools over religious events you are in fact forcing others to register it as being significant. Not only that, you're stopping others from performing their labor due to the religious beliefs of others.
 
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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Try delivering that message to the (I'm sure very large) majority of parents with respect to Christmas. :)
 
Does this mean they will ask for 9/11 to be a holiday also?
 
TacticalEvilDan said:
Try delivering that message to the (I'm sure very large) majority of parents with respect to Christmas. :)
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Christmas is about as religious as St. Patrick's Day these days. But hopefully, one day we'll get rid of such nonsense and simply call it for what it is: Two weeks off where we pretend we're Christians by doing everything Christ advocated against.
 
"New York schools may close for Muslim holidays"



...just to be safe.
 
Hatuey said:
Christmas is about as religious as St. Patrick's Day these days. But hopefully, one day we'll get rid of such nonsense and simply call it for what it is: Two weeks off where we pretend we're Christians by doing everything Christ advocated against.
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For some people it is, for some people it isn't. Either way, I don't have a problem with public schools recognizing other holidays while Christmas holds a special place.
 
Hatuey said:
This is the problem with mixing religion and state.
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How is this "mixing religion and state"? Schools will be simply closed on Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, to make things easier for the growing number of Muslim students. I think de Blasio is a terrible candidate, and I don't know much about Lhota, but in this case they both make perfect sense.
 
Hatuey said:
By closing down the schools over religious events you are in fact forcing others to register it as being significant. Not only that, you're stopping others from performing their labor due to the religious beliefs of others.
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a day off is a day off are you that week minded to allow others to make it significant in your mind
Are you so full of hate that you cant stand giving others the chance to celebrate what you don't believe
 
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Cyrylek said:
How is this "mixing religion and state"?
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How are public schools funded?

Schools will be simply closed on Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, to make things easier for the growing number of Muslim students.
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Why do they have to be closed? Parents can be allowed the option of not bringing kids to school.
 
trfjr said:
a day off is a day off are you that week minded to allow others to make it significant in your mind
Are you so full of hate that you cant stand seeing others have something you don't
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Spare me your fallacious arguments. My argument is that people can have their holidays - publicly funded schools shouldn't be closed in order to observe those holidays. Which is by far the most Libertarian argument on this thread.
 
Hatuey said:
you're stopping others from performing their labor due to the religious beliefs of others.
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But the same objection can be made regarding every other holiday. I don't give a hoot about Labor Day, for example. Religious or not, every holiday is forcing some people who do not care for its significance to stop working. Should we scrap them all?
 
Hatuey said:
How are public schools funded?.
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Irrelevant. No funds are being expended toward any religious goals in this case.



Hatuey said:
Why do they have to be closed? Parents can be allowed the option of not bringing kids to school.
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Parents are allowed that option on any day. They can homeschool, if they want. Why do Muslim students should miss an exam or a school play that may fall on one of these days?
 
Cyrylek said:
But the same objection can be made regarding every other holiday.
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As labor day doesn't give one religious belief preference over another with publicly funded institutions, your argument is silly. Your argument is apples and oranges.
 
This would definitely have gotten me to convert to islam. Anything for a day off high school.
 
Hatuey said:
Spare me your fallacious arguments. My argument is that people can have their holidays - publicly funded schools shouldn't be closed in order to observe those holidays. Which is by far the most Libertarian argument on this thread.
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so what is it costing you? is a school closing putting you out in any way? is it costing you money or time?
all im seeing from you is the whining's of a little brat not wanting someone to have something you don't believe in
 
Cyrylek said:
No funds are being expended toward any religious goals in this case.
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Funds being geared towards a religious goal is not the only part of separation of church and state. A state giving preference to some religious beliefs over others is a violation of that. :shrug: - Should Catholics get a holiday for every Saint they want to celebrate?

Parents are allowed that option on any day.
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Then they should exercise it on their religious holidays and not make everyone else stop their school work because of their kids.
 
trfjr said:
so what is it costing you?
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Do you pay taxes? It doesn't sound as if you do. Tell me, if you pay taxes to fund schools and your kids get a day off every time somebody has a religious celebration, what exactly are you paying taxes for? :) I'll wait.
 
Hatuey said:
Do you pay taxes? It doesn't sound as if you do. Tell me, if you pay taxes to fund schools and your kids get a day off every time somebody has a religious celebration, what exactly are you paying taxes for? :) I'll wait.
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less taxes
one day less of having to pay the utilities and maintenance on the school
so explain how is a school closing for a day cost money?
 
Hatuey said:
This is all I needed for you to prove you don't actually pay any.
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one day less of having to pay the utilities and maintenance on the school
so explain how is a school closing for a day cost money?
answer that or your just full of crap a whiney little brat not wanting someone to have something you don't believe in
 
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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Yeah, they are now more considered the winter break and spring break, where they used to be called Christmas and Easter, so I guess there should be no religious holidays celebrated at schools, or in classrooms, but it does seem okay to use it as an occasion to learn about a culture in social studies on those days.
 
trfjr said:
one day less of having to pay the utilities and maintenance on the school
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Lol, if you think your taxes go to pay for their heating bill - you don't actually pay taxes. Please stop it. You're showing everybody here your real age. Does your father pay taxes? Because then, I'd like for him to get on this website right now and explain to you that the school district's biggest expense is not their utilities.
 
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