After years of campaigning, New York Muslims have jubilantly welcomed Mayor Bill de Blasio’s decision to add two Muslim holidays to public school calendar, something he described as a simple “matter of fairness.”
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“When these holidays are recognized, it’s a sign that Muslims have a role in the political and social fabric of America,” Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, told New York Times on Thursday, March 5.
Hooper was among jubilant American Muslims who welcomed Mayor de Blasio’s announcement on Wednesday.
De Blasio, a Democrat who has pledged a more tolerant and inclusive city, described the policy that begins in the coming school year as a simple “matter of fairness.”
The decision followed nine years of campaigning by a group of Muslims in the cosmopolitan city, where Muslims make up to 10 percent of the students’ number.
The administration of de Blasio’s predecessor, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, rejected the idea, saying schoolchildren needed more time in the classroom.
Bloomberg also expressed concern that parents of different faiths would need to arrange child care on days that school was not in session.
On the other hand, De Blasio pledged, as a candidate in 2013, to close schools on the two Muslim holy days.
The decision comes amid increasing anti-Muslim sentiments across Europe and the United States.
In November, education officials in Montgomery County, Md., reacted to a local campaign to recognize the Muslim holidays by deciding to eliminate all mention of religious holidays on their 2015-16 school calendar, including Rosh Hashana and Christmas.
“It felt like they were going to do anything they could to prevent adding the Eid holiday,” said Zainab Chaudry, who was a leader of the Equality for Eid coalition there.
In January, Duke University abruptly canceled plans to start broadcasting the Muslim call to prayer from the school’s chapel bell tower after threats of violence.
Three young American Muslims were also murdered last month in attack in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The assassination-style attack prompted fears about an anti-Muslim backlash.
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Away from increasing sentiments, Muslim students and parents welcomed the decision.
“I know that Muslims are a minority, but we have to be recognized,” Ilham Atmani, who was born in Morocco and lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, said.
Helal Chowdhury, 15, a sophomore at Brooklyn Technical High School, has also welcomed the decision, saying he was forced to choose between celebrating holidays and attending schools for years.
“This is a big step forward,” Helal, who wants to be a doctor, said.
“We’ve been waiting a long time for this.”
Promising to close schools on the Lunar New Year, mayor de Blasio said he was “going to keep working on that,” noting that he and schools officials had to contend with a packed academic calendar.
State Senator Daniel L. Squadron, a Democrat who represents Chinatown in Manhattan, said that while he was pleased with the new policy on Muslim holidays, “it’s critical that the Lunar New Year have the same result.”
Expecting criticism from the right wing, de Blasio said his decision was pertaining to the US constitution granting equal rights.
“People who will criticize it, I think, should go back and look at the Constitution of the United States,” he said at a school gymnasium in Bay Ridge on Wednesday.
“We are a nation that was built to be multifaith, multicultural.”
Muslims celebrate two feasts each year.
`Eid Al-Adha, or “Feast of Sacrifice”, is one of the two most important Islamic celebrations, together with `Eid Al-Fitr.
Elsewhere across the United States, home to a Muslim minority between 6-8 million, recognizing Muslim religious holidays is gaining ground.
In Boston, leading schools Cambridge Public School District issued a decision in 2010 to recognize `Eid Al-Fitr and `Eid Al-Adha, which marks the end of hajj.
Several cities in New Jersey close schools on Muslim holidays.
Dearborn, Michigan, where nearly half of the 18,000 students are Muslims, is believed to be the first city to close school on Muslim festivals.
In September 2010, public schools in Burlington city, Vermont, also closed on `Eid al-Fitr for the first time.
CAIR offers a booklet, called "An Educator's Guide to Islamic Religious Practices," designed to help school officials provide a positive learning environment for Muslim students.
