I am Muslim. I am American. I am proud to be both. I am proud to be born in America and educated in the American public school system. One of the more positive memories of my younger days in school was being able to tell my friends and teachers I won’t be coming to school on Eid-ul-Adha and Eid-ul-Fitr. Even some of my friends would joke, “I’m also mooz-lum, I have that holiday too. I won’t be in school.”
What I also remember is my father going to the masjid the nights before the new lunar month moon would be born trying to decide when Eid will be. It is a debate that still happens today and will continue until The End. There is absolutely nothing wrong in this debate either. It is perfectly legitimate and okay to have some communities doing Eid on one day while others on another day. Jummah is obligatory and extremely important to pray weekly. We should petition to have time to pray in schools. That is is a lot harder then to take time off for Eid. Why aren’t we debating on ways to get our entire community to agree to pray their obligatory prayers? Or debating on the obligations the communities should protect battered women or orphaned children? It should not matter whether you choose to follow Saudi Arabia or follow calculated methods or look for the moon anywhere in the world or in your local area. What matters is that you are reciting the takbir. What matters is that you are taking the time off with your family and enjoy it with them. What matters is that you eat some good food and smile.
What is the point in getting public schools to have the two Eid holidays on the calendar? Is it for us to feel proud Islam is being recognized? Is it for ease to get the holiday off? Is it out of love for Allah and His Messenger’s ways (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)? Is it really hard to get off from school and work two days a year? Muslims have been here for hundreds of years and did they need their children’s schools to recognize Eid to fully practice Islam and be good Muslims?
I was disappointed when I saw Muslims sharing a WhiteHouse.gov petition to get Muslim holidays recognized across all public schools across America. I apologize for saying this but this is nonsensical. Religious holiday recognition is done on the local level, not the federal level. Federal law cannot compel state, municipal, or other local governments to observe or recognize federal holidays in any way; the Tenth Amendment effectively reserves holiday creation policy to the governments of the several states. This shows our lack of knowledge of understanding of how the system works. Our community still has a lot of growing up to do when it comes to understanding the political system in America. I was even more disappointed when major Muslim organizations were also endorsing this and sharing it.
Getting back to the actual idea of getting Muslim holidays recognized in public schools, it is silly for us to petition any public school in America to adopt our holidays when our own community celebrates it on various days. How do you think it will sound when the public school calendar has it listed on Monday but some Muslim communities are celebrating it on Tuesday. When a young Muslim boy goes to his teacher and explains his religious holiday is on Tuesday and he will not be in school. His teacher will be confused and say it’s listed as Monday on the school calendar.
Recently NYC public schools have adopted Muslim holidays into their calendar. This is bound for disaster. I can tell you that Muslim communities in the NYC area celebrate Eid on different days every single Eid. That means there will be students at NYC public schools celebrating Eid not on the day assigned by the calendar. How many meetings, efforts, funds and hours were spent trying to push this agenda to the NYC public school board? Was this time wisely spent? Was this effort worth it? Is this really a great thing for Muslims? Is it really?
I will probably get responses and comments from many people who disagree with me, which is fine. The beauty of this country is that we can voice our differences without fear of being persecuted. Do petitions even work? I mean maybe we could have petitioned Obama to address the NYC wiretap issue? Or the drones over Pakistan and Yemen? Or address the lack of action towards the situation in Syria (Especially how it appears it is so devastating that they are now eating cats due to hunger)? If we did already, then do it again and again. The first petition failed for the Muslim holidays but again our communities started a second one. If we are so adamant about getting holidays, perhaps we should be more adamant about things that truly matter and where the President can actually do something about it. Unless of course it is extremely important to get non-Muslim students and teachers to take off for Eid.
Alright, I am done. Now let’s go drink some Coca-Cola.
Feb 04, 2014 @ 18:31:37
Very solid Points Brother!
Feb 05, 2014 @ 00:40:07
You raise some good points, but let’s break them down into an easy list.
1. School holidays are not a federal thing, they are on the local and state level. This is true, and we should focus our energies into local school boards etc. Thank you for pointing this out.
2. Why have Eid off in the first place? you ask. In New York State, the regents exams were held on the same day as Eid recently. This put families in the uncomfortable position of making their kid study and go take a big state exam while everyone else was celebrating, or take the kid out of school that day and do harm to their academic resumé. There’s been a push in the state to ban exams from the same days as religious holidays, if school holidays won’t be possible for that day. It’s a start, but it needs to go further.
3. Eid can stretch onto 2 days depending on the communities and moon sightings. Yup, that is a problem. You know who else has the same problem? The Jewish community. How did they solve this? They have 2 days off for each holiday on the calendar, and most non-Jews assume that the holiday is actually 2 days long. I didn’t know it was a 1-day holiday and subject to moonsighting until recently, and most New Yorkers don’t know that either.
Lastly, a study by activists who wanted Eid holidays for NYC schoolchildren pointed out that Eid would only take away 9 school days over the next 20 years, because it often falls on weekends or in the summer.
Feb 05, 2014 @ 08:06:40
Excellent points. So why not have two days off instead of one forcing one opinion onto Muslim students and parents. Regarding the Regents examinations, I too went to New York City and State public schools. I just took a makeup exam when Eid fell on an exam day. It wasn’t hard to request it due to a religious holiday. They offer the Regents exams on multiple days. Not every student will take it the same day.
Feb 05, 2014 @ 02:32:00
Now why is Bill Cosby’s picture the cover photo for this article?
Feb 05, 2014 @ 08:09:59
His facial expression expresses how I feel.
Feb 05, 2014 @ 17:54:28
I rather focus on allowing our young men In public schools to attend Jummah Prayer.May Allah make it easy for us.
Feb 06, 2014 @ 07:49:38
I agree. It’s nice to have Eid off but it’s a lot easier to take off for Eid then to skip class for Friday prayers. If there was an official way to schedule around Jummah prayer would be great since this is a weekly obligation.
Feb 05, 2014 @ 22:52:56
Please have ur name on an article..it annoys to read things without knowing the writer.
Feb 06, 2014 @ 03:23:37
Brother fact check, eid is not sunnah, its FARDH,
Feb 06, 2014 @ 13:04:16
Eid prayer is Wajib not Fardh.
Feb 06, 2014 @ 16:45:18
Personally, I think this is a great way for non-Muslims to learn about the Muslim holiday, or at least to acknowledge it. I went through elementary, middle and high school, always having to take off on Eid and having to explain it to my teachers, it was a hassle. I would have loved to not have to miss school. The opportunity to get perfect attendance is for every body except Muslims who want to celebrate their holiday. How is that even fair? I’m really glad that people have started to take a stand for this, and InshaAllah we will be able to see more ease for Muslims living in this country in the future.
And if the Jewish can take off two days, then it is only fair to allow the Muslims to take off two days too.Otherwise, that’s discrimination.
Feb 08, 2014 @ 07:44:21
It’s an emphasized sunnah according to Maliki fiqh
Jan 02, 2015 @ 17:01:51
I am Amal Razik I am Muslim I did not think you are that ugly bel Crosby you really diseppointted you are bad person I use to like all your chow no more