DAR AL HARB - U.S.A. - MARYLAND: THE PUSH FOR MOSLEM HOLIDAYS ON SCHOOL CALENDARS IS ON...THE WHINING IS GETTING LOUDER & MORE FREQUENT

Muslims make holiday push
They say it's a matter of equality; county says its hands are tied
by Chris Burroughs

Members of the Muslim community say it would be equality. The Baltimore County Board of Education says it would be illegal.

"It" would be the adding of two Muslim holidays to the school calendar for 2008-'09. Though a calendar has not yet been presented for board approval, many members of the county's Muslim community came to the board's April 24 meeting to encourage board members to include the holidays, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.

Supporters said that since the board closes school on two Jewish holidays, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, as well as Christmas and Easter, the two Muslim holidays should receive equal treatment.

"Our children need to hear they are first-class citizens like everybody else. Every citizen needs to feel that way, regardless of their religion," said Dr. Bash Pharoan, president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee's Baltimore chapter and one of the leading proponents of adding the holidays to the calendar.

Pharoan said it has been a two-decade struggle to get the Muslim holidays added, carried on by others before his involvement began in 1997.

Several in the audience spoke about their support for the holiday closings. Kanwal Rehman, a 15-year-old sophomore at Dulaney High School, said every year Muslims make this same request and every year they are denied.

'No one is listening'

"To me it seems that no one is listening and no one here cares," she said. "I want to be faithful to my religion, but not having these holidays is making it difficult."

System officials, however, said they must follow the law when it comes to holidays. Maryland law permits schools to close on Thanksgiving Day and the day after, Christmas Eve through January 1, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents' Day, the Friday before and Monday after Easter, Memorial Day, and primary and general election days. The law also requires schools to be open for at least 180 school days and a minimum of 1,080 hours.

The linchpin of the board's argument, however, is that there must be a secular purpose for a school to close. A 2005 Maryland State Board of Education opinion stated that it would be against the law to close for a religious holiday of one particular faith except that it "must have some secular purpose .... such as economizing educational resources on days with high absenteeism ... ."

...


Pertinent Links:

1) Muslims make holiday push - They say it's a matter of equality; county says its hands are tied