The Hillsborough County Board of Education initially made the dhimmi move of cancelling all religious holidays rather than add Muslim ones. Now the Baltimore Board is taking the more sensible line that there simply aren’t enough Muslim students to justify these holidays. In this day and age, with pusillanimity and political correctness the reigning responses to such demands, this is a courageous stand. “Days off for Muslims unlikely,” from the Washington Times, with thanks to Gnosis:
The Baltimore County Board of Education is expected tonight to reject calls from a Muslim group to add two Islamic holidays to the proposed 2006-07 school calendar.
The board is expected to adopt the recommendations of a subcommittee that found countywide attendance does not drop enough on Muslim holidays to justify closures. Instead, the subcommittee recommends that the district note the holidays on the calendar and teach students about their significance.
Muslims across the nation are pushing for public school closings on Islamic holy days, succeeding in Dearborn, Mich., and in four jurisdictions in New Jersey — a handful of districts that are the exceptions to the rule.
School officials in Hillsborough County, Fla., ran afoul of practically every religious sect in October when they canceled days off for three Jewish and Christian holidays rather than close for any Muslim holidays.
Public outcry forced school board members to reverse their decision on the Jewish and Christian holidays, and the district remains open on Muslim holidays.