This is not an issue of equality. This is an issue of the dominant culture being made to submit to the demands of a tiny minority. The Jewish presence in America has always been significant; Muslim presence has been nil until recently, despite fantasies about Columbus' crew seeing minarets as they approached the New World. This is an attempt at cultural strong-arming and intimidation, and should be resisted as such. "Muslim group targets Jewish holidays," from the Towson Times, with thanks to Twostellas:
A Muslim group is demanding that the Baltimore County school system remove Jewish holidays from the 2006-07 school calendar.The demand comes after a nearly three-year battle between the Baltimore County Muslim Council and the school system over adding two Islamic holy days, Id al-Fitre and Id al-Adha, to the school calendar.
Next school year's calendar, proposed May 10 and due to be voted on by the school board June 13, does not include the two Muslim holy days. But the calendar does list the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, meaning schools are closed those days.
Dr. Bash Pharoan, president of the Muslim council, said it is not fair for the county to recognize one religion while ignoring others. He said if the school board does not vote to allow the two Muslim holidays, then the Jewish holidays should be dropped.
"This issue is about equality, about equity," he said....
"This is an attempt to wage de-facto warfare between Muslims and Jews in Baltimore County," said Arthur Abramson, executive director of the Baltimore Jewish Council.
"This has nothing to do with the best interests of the school district nor the students," he said, calling the attempt to do away with the Jewish holidays "religious discrimination."
Abramson said the school system's decision to add the Jewish holidays was purely economic.
The school system, he said, adopted the holidays largely because it was too costly to hire substitutes to fill in for observant Jewish teachers.
A school system representative did not return phone calls, but according to the schools' Web site, substitute teacher pay starts at $59.66 and can go as high as $103.05 a day.
Abramson said that when the schools have more Muslim teachers and students, the Muslim holidays will be added to the closings list....
The committee agreed to allow both Muslim students and teachers excused absences on their holy days. At the same time, the panel agreed to monitor the number of absences and make a determination if the days off were needed.
Pharoan called that "racial profiling."...
Despicable. Islam is not a race.
But Pharoan says the issue isn't about religion.This is "not about celebrating religious holidays," he said, "this is about equal treatment of all county tax-paying residents."
Pharoan said his goal is not to rid Jewish students and teachers of their holidays.
"I just want to be treated the same. It is only fair," he said.
Pharoan said he would be satisfied if the board allowed one of the two Islamic holidays.
No, he wouldn't. He would just go on to the next demand.
When I was studying the UK national curriculum I noticed that the qu'ran had to be put on a shelf and no books were to be put on top of it, I can't remember the exact wording but the guidelines were to introduce the qu'ran to pupils reverentially as if it was a special book. When I checked to get a reference for this it had gone! This may be due to a change of personae at governmental level, or increased awareness of what is in the qu'ran. It is possibly the work of David Bell, ex head of Ofsted who suggested that faith schools did not prepare Muslims for modern society, who was of course criticized by some as racist and Islamophobic, ie it was suggested he did not know what he was on about, despite the fact he was the chief 'schools inspector' in the UK. Anyway this symbol of Islamization, raising of the Qu'ran above other books is now apparently OFF the curriculum.
If you ask me, Muslims simply don't deserve to have their holidays observed anywhere. All they do is cause trouble and instability, while more or less refusing to integrate with the civilization they've immigrated to. Yet they still keep on demanding, demanding and demanding as if they had a divine right to be on equal terms despite their infantile attitude.
I think the day Zarqawi died should be declared an Infidel holiday.
Islamic beliefs, which are apparent in many places around the world, do not correlate with freedom or equality, so there is no sense in adding their so-called holidays to any American school calender.
This is not a Judeo-Christian-Muslim nation. Islam is not only not a race....it should be questioned as to whether or not, in its current form, it should even be considered a legitimate world religion.
"I just want to be treated the same. It is only fair," he said.
Muslim lies, taqiyyah and kitman. They want special, preferential tretment, to the exclusion of all other faiths.
If they get what they want with the Jewish Holy Days, the Christian ones will be next.
OT: Everytime I'm in a major book store, I find books with pigs on the cover and place them in between and on top of the Qur'ans.
Heh, just doing my part :)
Careful there, deesine. You could spark a new global riot.
I agree with Bohemond. This is a campaign, carefully planned, to strip school systems and the public square of the Judeo-Christian heritage that belongs to all Americans. OF course, they have a lot of help from the likes of the ACLU. The second stage of attack, once they increase their numbers in certain areas, and when Judeo-Christian holidays are off the calendar, is to push for THEIR holidays in school systems and work places. Think of the impace on children in the future when only Muslim holidays are talked about and celebrated in shools. The Muslims believe that they will succeed in bullying the dhimmi Americans. After all, their plans have worked well so far. How many companies have provided the Muslims with prayer rooms for their exclusive use?
As a MD resident (albeit not in Baltimore), I find this disturbing. Muslims are on the offensive on all fronts, they are relentless, they know how to play Western media and the emotions of liberal useful idiots, and consequently are making daily progress. Whether they succeed in this intimidation attempt or not, the fact that these pedophile worshippers are no longer afraid to wage open war against Judaism and Jews in the U.S. is a bad sign.
Spencer writes: "This is an issue of the dominant culture being made to submit to the demands of a tiny minority."
I think this is mistaken and faulty. I don't see anything wrong with accomodating minorities, no matter how small they might be (and who is to define "tiny"?).
The reasoning for refusing this particular demand should not be that Muslims are a tiny minority -- what if they grow beyond that status into a "large" minority? What would Spencer's argument rest on then?
No, the reasoning for refusing this particular demand should be the nature of the thing being demanded: Islam is to be condemned for reasons x, y and z (cf., at the minimum, three years of Jihad Watch articles). No condemned ideology -- the condemnation of which includes its participation in a growing nebula of concrete threats to our civilization -- should be accomodated or supported or subsidized in any way in our society.
Note: There are, for example, ideologies that we as a society condemn and yet tolerate at a bare minimum, even though we refuse to accomodate them: example, Satanists: we tolerate the existence of Satanists who like to read their literature and congregate to perform their rituals (as long as those rituals do not involve breaking any laws), but we would never accomodate Satanists by putting their Unholy Days on our school or government calendars. When, however, an ideology goes beyond merely being condemnable to being part of a nebula of global militant expansionism that concretely threatens us, then we also ought not tolerate its existence. But, of course, (sigh), I am speaking in the ether of oughts, not on the sad Earth of what is -- heck, in the real world of this Terra Infirma, Spencer won't even take the logical step of condemning Islam but apparently has to resort to its being, for now, a "tiny minority", in order to exclude its accomodation!
Oh God. Here it comes!
Television,
If you think my only objection to Islam in America is based on the fact that Muslims are a tiny minority, you haven't been paying attention.
Cordially
Robert Spencer
No immigrant (migrant) group has the right to demand accommodation as they should be joining the mainstream culture. They should high-tail it back where they came from if it is not to their liking.
Imagine a visitor to your house demanding that you change your routine and everything else. A good host will for a brief period of time with the knowledge that the guest will soon leave. (After three days a house guest and a dead fish have the same characterics: they have both overstayed their welcome. Those that come to the understanding that there are house rules to be obeyed, and if they can't conform, they must leave.
Migrants and immigrants must operate under the same principle.
All the more reason to send your kids to Catholic school, or any other Christian school of your choice
Robert,
I have been paying attention, and that's why I note a paradox that seems to be a contradiction.
Sorry but why should the tax payers pay for a substitute teacher if Jews want their holidays. I agree with the muslims on this one. Holidays are holidays. If you want to take them off do it at your own expense and time.
The only holiday we need from the Muslims is:
The Day of the Renunciation of Terrorism by Islam.
They can keep all the rest.
Robert
I agree with TV - numbers aren't the issue, and I know you aren't saying they are the only issue. I'd have no problems with the Emperor Akihito's birthday being a holiday in a school that wishes to accomodate its Shinto students. The reason Islam shouldn't be accomodated is that the concept of co-existence with other religions is not just alien, but hostile to it.
Look forward to hearing from you tomorrow on radio. Let me guess - Zarqawi, Canada 17,...
TV and Pride:
You two, like my dear friend Lawrence Auster, are taking statements about a quite specific and particular situation as what they were never intended to be: complete, comprehensive statements of policy.
I would advise against doing that.
Cordially
Robert Spencer
As far as I'm aware most adolescent Muslims keep Ramadan which means their concentration is hopeless for 30 days of the year. Sometimes this can occcur in crucial pre-exam revision periods. I would imagine they would not keep the fast during important public exams, but wouldn't put it past them. Also if it's cloudy and the new moon cannot be seen, doesn't Eid ul-Fitr get put back a day?
I'm with Television (to a degree) on this one.
While I understand the basic point that Robert is making ("...the dominant culture being made to submit to the demands of a tiny minority."), I think that the school board leaves itself open to legitimate criticism for continuing to schedule a day off based upon the religious beliefs/practices/customs of some of its staff/students while denying similar accommodation for others.
I'm not defending the Muslim point of view, for I know in my heart that the Muslim Council spokesman will not really be satisfied with just one Islamic holiday being added to the calendar. But, I smell a lawsuit pending here.
As an aside, the Baltimore County Public Schools 2006/7 calendar actually has one fewer day off in observance of the Jewish faith than this current year.
http://www.bcps.org/calendars/2006_2007.html
Rosh Hashana begins at sundown on Friday, September 22, 2006 and ends at nightfall on Sunday, September 24, 2006, and is therefore not a day off.
On the flipside, the Winter break has been rechristened Christmas/Winter break and Spring break has been renamed Easter/Spring break.
I'm not sure that they aren't unintentionally digging an even deeper hole.
"The only holiday we need from the Muslims is:
The Day of the Renunciation of Terrorism by Islam.
They can keep all the rest."
Not good enough: plenty of Muslims renounce terrorism -- after they re-define it accordingly.
I think many of us here agree that the holiday we need from Muslims is:
The Day of the Renunciation of Prophet Mohammed, the Qur'an and the Hadiths by Islam.
Until that day, we can never rest easy on our holidays.
(After Muslims strip Islam of Mohammed, the Qur'an and the Hadiths (and don't replace it with anything similar), I'd be happy to refrain from condemning Islam -- but not before.)
The numbers are unimportant. These Muslims are not demanding the right to celebrate their holidays, they are demanding that schools close so everyone will have to recognize the Muslims feasts. This is an imposition on everybody.
If Muslim students want to celebrate these days, they should be given an excused absence. The same goes for every other religion.
On the other hand, major Christian and Jewish holidays have the same weight as secular holidays (like Thanksgiving or President's Day) because of the historical contributions that Jews and Christians have made to the United States.
For example, The first Jew elected to the U.S. Senate was Florida Democrat David Levy Yulee. Yulee was first elected in 1845 and served until 1851 and then served another term from 1855 to 1861. He was the son of Moses Elias Levy, a Moroccan Jew who made his fortune in timber in the Caribbean, then bought 50,000 acres of land near Jacksonville, hoping to create a New Jerusalem for Jewish settlers. Levy County and the city of Yulee are named after this family. More than two dozen Jews have served in the Senate since then. Then there are all the Jews who've served as justices, congressmen, etc. Muslims will never be able to claim these kind of contributions to American history.
"Think of the impace [sic] on children in the future when only Muslim holidays are talked about and celebrated in shools."
What do you mean "in the future?" I've two children who've gone through the seventh grade the Islamic unit, complete with Islamic holidays, but the Byzantine Unit doesn't even mention Christianity! "I would be teaching religion if I taught that," said the teacher. And she isn't -- when she teaches all about Islam and Mohammed without any of the historically accurate accounts of dhimmitude?
Today, we had the end of the year "International Expo" Seventh graders were dressed in costume. Of those who had the Islamic unit...not one girl was in a burqa. Was Islam accurately portrayed in the text and by the teacher?
Remember Armenia 1921, Remember the docks of Smyrna 1921, Remember the streets of Constantinople 1955, Remember Cyprus, Remember Serbia 1998, Remember Somalia...
One more point... Every single one of those Jewish US Senators was elected by an overwhelmingly Christian voting population. Every single Jewish supreme court justice and federal judge was appointed by a (at least nominally) Christian president. Let's see any Muslim run society show such inter-religious harmony.
"Islam ... should be questioned as to whether or not, in its current form, it should even be considered a legitimate world religion."
Strip it of what you call the current form - superiority ideology - and it ceases to exist.
Proslovani:
If you aren't aware of it, you may be interested in reading Mark Twain's observations in the late 1800s of growing antiSemitism in Austria and the place of Jews in the world. Amazingly prescient!
In March 1898 Harpers published an essay by Mark Twain, Stirring Times in Austria. His description of a scene at Vienna's Parliament, rife with vicious anti-Semitism raised some questions, particularly from American Jews. Twain chose one representative letter to frame his response, he summarizes the letter's main points:
1. The Jew is a well-behaved citizen.
2. Can ignorance and fanaticism alone account for his unjust treatment?
3. Can Jews do anything to improve the situation?
4. The Jews have no party; they are non-participants.
5. Will the persecution ever come to an end?
6. What has become of the Golden Rule?
Read it all:
http://www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/people/c/clemens.samuel/concerning-jews/concerning-jews
"I've two children who've gone through the seventh grade the Islamic unit, complete with Islamic holidays, but the Byzantine Unit doesn't even mention Christianity!"
-- from a posting above
In the "Islamic unit" is any attention given to the subject of what prompted Jihad-conquest all over the Middle East and North Africa, and then later the conquest of Byzantium, and the behavior of the conquerors (including those three days of mayhem and murder in Constantinople starting on May 29, 1453)? If not, why not?
And is the teacher of this "Byzantine unit" aware that Constantinople was the most important, the wealthiest, the most populous, city in Christendom for nearly a thousand years? Surely that is worth noting. And worth noting, too, is the history - not religion, but history -- described by Bat Ye'or in "The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam."
For a recent study, one in a growing number that deal with Christian communities that still manage somehow to survive in a hostile Muslim sea, this one on the Aramaeans (Aramaic speakers) of the Middle East, google "Sebastien Courtois" and find his book published by Gorgias Press.
And I Canada Muslim members of Parliament assert that Islam must be taught in Schools to counter ignorance and Islamophobia.
Just click on the video , terrorism is all about non-Muslims not understanding Islam.
http://www.proudtobecanadian.ca/blog/index/weblog/4731/
ala-sux:
How about the shoe going on the other foot. Christianity and Judiism should also be taugt in Canadian schools so that students of other faiths who do not understand either of these faiths can be enlightened. You seem to think ignorance exists only towards Muslims.
waterdragon52,
Thanks for that fascinating link.
Here's another interesting sideline about the role of Jews in US history: The second Jew in the US Senate was Judah Benjamin of Louisiana. He was also the first Jew to serve as a Cabinet member, albeit in the Confederacy, where he was Secretary of War, Attorney General, and then Secretary of State.
After the South lost the war for its independence, Benjamin moved to the UK where he served as Queen's Counsel for Prime Minister Disraeli and a close friend of Gladstone. One plan that he put forward was for Britain to buy Palestine from the Turks and establish a British colony there as a homeland for the world's persecuted Jews. In this new Jewish colony, Benjamin would be governor-general. Of course the Turks rejected the idea and Disraeli refused to push the idea for fear of offending his "friends" in the sublime porte.
Sure we will remove the jewish holidays from the calendar...
As soon as
1. Muslims stop beheading infidels
2. Muslims stop blowing up school buses
3. Muslims stop assasinations
4. Muslims stop killing all infidels
5. Muslims stop their nazi plans for genocide of all the Jews..
6. Muslims stop burning down churches (and hindu temples)...
7. MUslims stop the mass rape campaigns in Darfur
8. Muslims stop hijacking aircraft and ramming them into buildings..
I can keep going on the list is endless os Muslims and Islams crimes against ALL Non muslims..
I can document everything i just stated with Video (thanks to zarchawi and bin laden) Audio, print and news media.. (hey the main stream leftist beytraying news media is actually worth something) ...
Their camera equipment..!!!
When I can walk into a muslim country with a Bible and not have my hands chopped offf, my wife raped and my children blown up by a car bomb..
Then maybe we MIGHT consider it...
That will happen when Mohammed (Pork be on him)
Roasting in HELL asks God for a PORK Chop...
"I just want to be treated the same. It is only fair," he said.
You are treated just the same as you treat others. Fair?
"This issue is about equality, about equity," he said....
How can those, who do not even consider other religions legitimate, much less equal, argue for equality?
Nice try at Da'wa.............