Some time ago I wrote an article about an initiative by Muslim groups in America to recast "Judeo-Christian values" as "Judeo-Christian-Islamic values," as if the addition of the third would not substantially alter the content of the values referred to. Now a group of Muslim parents in Maryland want to bring about recognition of Islam as the third value source by getting public schools to close on Muslim holidays. There is nothing wrong with this in principle, and certainly none if there is a substantial Muslim population in the school district. But the school officials are certainly correct that if days are given for every religious holiday of every derivation, there will be few (if any) school days left. The alternative, of course, is to recognize that Judaism and Christianity have a particular position in America as the source of our culture's values. And that's the real battleground here. From WBAL, with thanks to Nicolei:
Some Muslim parents, students and community activists are lobbying for the Baltimore County school board to close schools on their two most important religious holidays.If the schools are closed Christmas and the Jewish High Holy Days, the group argues, it is only fair that they close on Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha as well.
But amid calls for fairness and cultural sensitivity, others said closing schools on Muslim holidays would set a precedent the system would have to follow for any number of other religious and ethnic groups.
About 30 people attended a school board meeting last week to advocate closing schools on the holidays, whose dates - like those of Jewish holidays - change every year because they are determined by a lunar calendar. School officials said they have also received about 40 e-mails and faxes on the subject.
Eid al-Fitr celebrates the end of Ramadan, a month of daytime fasting and reflection. Eid al-Adha, or feast of the sacrifice, celebrates the Quranic account of God letting Abraham sacrifice a sheep instead of his son.
"The kids want to be like everyone else, and they feel they are not," said Haider Thamir, a financial adviser from Cockeysville whose children attend Dulaney High School and Warren Elementary School.
District officials do not have figures on the number of Muslim students enrolled in Baltimore County schools because they are not allowed to ask for students' religious affiliation.
Advocates say closing the schools on Muslim holidays would help promote cultural sensitivity and understanding.
But a community activist said she would rather see the school system continue to give Muslim students excused absences.
"Our students are already inundated with enough time off," said Ella White Campbell, who is chairwoman of the school superintendent's minority achievement advisory council. "There needs to be more time in school. ... It sets a very dangerous precedent for the system."
Are Muslim countries going to recast their private and public institutions as Judeo-Christian-Islamic to make their dhimmi minorities feel "included"? Not on your life. If they aren't willing to do so, why should we?
Huh? When I went to public school, the school didn't close for Jewish holidays. I simply skipped school on those days. And yes, the classes were easy enough that it didn't hurt my grades.
If Muslims are really serious about their religion, they can simply skip school on their holidays. Or they can send their kids to a Muslim school.
I'm still waiting for a church to be built in Saudi Arabia and for the end of persecution of Egyptian Coptic and Iraqi Assyrian Christians. If America had been Judaeo-Christian-Islamic, we'd have been like the Arab countries, for goodness sake. Judaeo-Christianity is the foundation of civil society in America, and to it we owe our Constitution and the Bill of Rights. We owe nothing to Islam.
Helen, there are some things we owe to islam. They taught us cultural imperialism. I don't think it's any wonder that the worst example of Christian forced conversion was by the Spanish in South America, immediately after they had freed themselves from the yolk of Islam.
Islamists will try to claim modern science comes out of Islamic scholarship in the past. The 'golden age' of their science was simply a result of one empire conquering many intellectually advanced countries. The science they claim as theirs belonged to the Egyptians, the Indians, the Byzantines, the Babylonians. When the empire grew there was a period of synthesis of others ideas, then with no more countries being conquered, and a civilization with no ideas of it's own, it slowly stagnated.
At least when the Romans did this, they had the decency to admit they learned from the Etruscans, the Greeks etc.
When the muslim armies,invated Mesopotamia,from Arabia,what science and technology,the muslim armies,brought with them to show or teach the Assyrians/Babylonians.Prove,each time archeology
dig in Iraq,what they find Assyrians/Babylonians
artifacts with highly advanced people and culture.
Prove that Arabia had this kind of advancments.
Islam, In general has never been a contributor of any thing positive or constructive to the human race. All Islam had to offer was and still is Terror and nothing but terror. The recent bloody events of September the 11th is a perfect example of how terror and terrorist are being manufactured in Islamic Mosques and carefully programmed by their clergymen and sent to the West to carry out their missions and inflect terror in the hearts of the Infidels (Christians and Jews) (Touba:29).
This is for the Turkish People.Watching the news about Turkey,and again a bomb exploded.Ower hearts
go to the families of the victims.Please people,
read SAHIH AL-BUKHARI and Narrated by Abu Huraira
the Prophet said,the hour will not be established
till you fight the Turks,who will have small eyes
red faces and flat noese and their faces will be
like flat shields.And you will find that the best
people are those who hate responsibility of ruling
most of all till they are chosen to be the rulers.
(1)And the people are of different natures:The
best in the pre-Islamic period are the best in Islam.A time will come when any of you will love
to see me rather than to have his family and
property doubled.
SAHIH AL-BUKHARI--Vol.4,Book Number( 787 )
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