These are interesting times in the Heartland. On February 13, 2018, a meeting of the Board of the Iowa City Community School District (ICCSD) took place. As was later reported in the Iowa City Press Citizen: [i]
Activism by some particularly young activists might shake up ICCSD’s school calendar to accommodate for more religious holidays.
With the the [sic] microphone adjusted for their height halfway through their public comments, a group of elementary students from various schools asked the board Tuesday to recognize the Muslim holidays of Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha.
These young activists were Muslim students, and one of them explained a significant reason for their request:
The Muslim community is getting bigger here in Iowa City, so (getting the holiday off) will benefit many people.
These young, elementary school-aged activists were asking the school board to not just recognize the two Eid’s, but to also make each Eid an official school holiday for which schools will be closed. The board agreed to take the matter under consideration. The Board will have plenty of time to consider this because neither of the Eid’s will occur during a school year until May 2021.
But this article also noted that these “activists” had actually started their efforts earlier in October 2017, when some of them had presented their idea to Yaa Appiah-McNulty, the principal of Weber Elementary School in Iowa City. As this newspaper article pointed out:
“I told her I don’t really think it’s fair people get to celebrate Halloween and stuff, and we don’t get to celebrate our holiday,” recounts one of the fifth-graders, 10-year-old Reem Kirja.
Appiah-McNulty said it was a huge moment for her. She was proud of the kids for speaking up for themselves and that they felt comfortable doing so on her campus. In response, she said she had the students come up with a plan for how to celebrate the holiday, and that the campus will hold a party in recognition of Eid Al-Fitr in May.[ii]
So Appiah-McNulty is planning on holding a party in May 2018 at Weber Elementary School in recognition of Eid Al-Fitr, even though Eid Al-Fitr doesn’t actually begin until the evening of June 14, 2018. What will this party taking place on public school grounds actually recognize?
Eid Al-Fitr is one of the two holiest days in Islam (Eid Al-Adha is the other), and it marks the end of Ramadan; it is an official holiday in all Muslim-majority countries:[iii]
Eid -ul -Fitr is a unique festival. It has no connection with any historical event nor is it related to the changes of seasons or cycles of agriculture. It is not a festival related in any way to worldly affairs. Its significance is purely spiritual. It is the day when the Muslims thank Allah for having given them the will, the strength and the endurance to observe fast and obey His commandment during the holy month of Ramadhan.[iv]
So Appiah-McNulty is planning on using public school resources to have a party on public school grounds to recognize one of the holiest days in Islam, even though that holy day doesn’t actually occur until the following month!
But wait, doesn’t the ICCSD give students the day off for Christmas? If they do so for that religious holiday, why not at least recognize Eid Al-Fitr, even if that recognition is done a month early?
In reality, Christmas is not specifically recognized by the ICCSD in terms of being a special holiday. On the 2017-2018 district calendar Christmas is listed as a “Holiday,” along with Thanksgiving, New Year’s Day, Labor Day and some others. But the date of December 25th simply falls within the two week period that is labeled “Winter Break.”[v] Christmas just happens to be one of the ten week-days during that Winter Break in which the ICCSD schools are closed. In fact, during the 2016-2017 school year Christmas occurred on a Sunday, so the date of December 25th was not even shown on the ICCSD school calendar for that year.[vi]
And Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha are already recognized on the ICCSD calendar, along with 27 other “Religious Holidays” from Christianity, Judaism, and other religions.
Our young Muslim activists are calling for the two holiest days of Islam to be given special treatment by having each of them declared a specific school holiday for which schools will be closed; an idea to which the ICCSD Board seems receptive. In addition, we have an elementary school principal who is planning on using public school resources and grounds to recognize one of those two religious days a month before it even occurs!
It’s time for the “separation of church and state” folks to visit Eastern Iowa.
Dr. Stephen M. Kirby is the author of five books about Islam. His latest book is The Lure of Fantasy Islam: Exposing the Myths and Myth Makers.
[i] Aimee Breaux, “Elementary students to board: Make major Muslim holidays school holidays,” Iowa City Press Citizen, February 15, 2018; accessed at http://www.press-citizen.com/story/news/education/2018/02/15/elementary-students-board-make-major-muslim-holidays-school-holidays/338821002/.
[ii] Ibid.
[iii] “Eid al-Fitr holiday: How many days is it by country?” Al Jazeera, June 26, 2017; accessed at http://www.aljazeera.com/news/eid-alfitr-holidays-170622044026470.html.
[iv] Eid-Ul-Fitr; a Unique Festival Time of Joy for Muslims, accessed at https://www.al-islam.org/fast-sayyid-saeed-akhtar-rizvi/eid-ul-fitr-unique-festival-time-joy-muslims.
[v] See, for example, the 2017-2018 School Calendar at https://www.iowacityschools.org/Page/12856.
[vi] https://www.iowacityschools.org/cms/lib/IA01903939/Centricity/Domain/2856/2016-17_District_Calendar.pdf
mike9a says
Why why, why all those special mos treatments, How mos earned this? Why, Why? How on the earth this is happening? Did virtue signaling ate all the brains the one in charge? Stupid is stupid does!
jule says
How many Jewish holidays are schools closed? How many Chinese holidays are schools closed? Just to show how bad of an idea this is, every culture must demand its holidays be celebrated so we can stop this at how ridiculous it would be! Chinese New Year, Vietnamese New Year, Japanese boys day, Japanese girls day, Hanukah, Mexican Day of the Dead, here are hundreds. Everyone should write the school and demand their Day before they start giving in!
J D S says
Yes Mike…. stupidity breeds stupidity.
Schools and the very young even kindergarten is where a young child’s mind can be bent…young non Muslims attending school with Muslims can help in bending those non Muslim children’s minds when they see the Muslims getting their ideas put out in front then the teachers applauding them for doing it. slowly ever slowly our school systems, with school board members, who have forgotten or never had Christian values, are allowing the influx of Muslim traits into our schools……..and what’s worse parents don’t really know what is going on in their schools…..Schools are just baby sitters especially for the very young…Just what Islam is expecting. Wake up parents …GET INVOLVED IN YOUR SCHOOLS……..
brane pilot says
Islam is going after the minds of our children, in our state run schools.
Since the government drove Christianity out of the schools, Islam is replacing it under the guise of ‘diversity’.
Once they have brainwashed our children with Islamic propaganda, all Muslims have to do is wait.
That has been the plan in Europe since the 1970s, and it is working beyond their wildest dreams.
Lydia Church says
Nailed it! Bullseye! Saved me the keystrokes.
JCME! says
Right on, and I’m glad to see I have people I can agree with.
Dubuque Observer says
The adults set up the child “activists” as the public face of the effort to make it more difficult for anyone to oppose this demand (proposal) for “equity.”
The Associated Press article and photo were intended to make this all sweetness and light.
LeftisruiningCanada says
Agreed.
Another “baby jihad”
Kay says
This is dangerous stuff.
Actually the “holidays” for which schools are closed are National holidays.
Any mention of Christmas in schools is entirely secular.
Also, children are excused from school for any holiday that the school is not closed: they simply have to tell the school it’s for a religious/cultural reason. That means they *can* celebrate already.
MFritz says
Problem is not what they may demand problem is who GIVES them what they demand.
LR says
Why are these children requesting this? Did they decide to confront the school board on their own? This is a request that should be made by parents, not the children.
Phil Copson says
Out of idle curiosity, I just looked-up the phrase “A woman’s hair is her crowning glory” – (various versions of this – eg, some say “crown and glory”) and it appears to come from the Bible – “Corinthians”.
(A loony has also posted up that wearing wigs, hair-extensions etc, means that the wearer has gone over to the devil – I always knew that there was something about the Lord Chief Justice I didn’t quite like – obviously it’s the wig and the way his long, scaly tail keeps poking out the back of his robes….)
So, if the Bible commended womens’ hair – is covering it up yet another example of Psycho Mo’s cut’n’paste Do-It-Yourself inversion technique for knocking up a quick bandit’s manifesto of his own ?
LeftisruiningCanada says
Head/hair coverings are part of Jewish custom, hence the line in Corinthians.
It seems likely that mo plagiarized this, but head dresses in general are quite common in many cultures.
RichardL says
I also think it makes her look like she is indeed a “special needs” person. Putting on a dishrag makes women drop at least 20 IQ points.
StellaSaidSo says
Make that 40 points. If she is wearing a dishrag, she’s already 20 IQ points down. (The average Muslim IQ is 20 points below the average European IQ.)
LeftisruiningCanada says
“Muslims thank Allah for having given them the will, the strength and the endurance to observe fast and obey His commandment during the holy month of Ramadhan”
Easy to get sick of hearing how tough fasting for daylight hours is for these people.
You would think that the harder part of the whole thing would be getting to sleep after stuffing yourself full every sunset.
Well, that and the poor women who have to spend all day preparing the nightly feast while also not eating or drinking anything.
Jerry Chaffee says
This is typical Iowa City left-wing liberalism, promoting socialism and destruction of Christianity and Judaism in America. Did I recall correctly that in some school in Johnson County, children were learning how to say in Arabic, “There is only one god, Allah, and Mohamed is his messenger”, and some were dressed like Muslims with Hijabs etc.? Look out, it is going to get worse and Iowa City is one of the cancers!
JawsV says
Yes, Iowa City. Left-wing paradise.
Mary Markstrom says
What would happen if Christian children went to an Islamic country and demand a school holiday at Christmas?
LeftisruiningCanada says
instant death
Eur says
I can only speak of Morocco, which is the case I know. No, there is no holiday at Christmas and the Islamic religion classes are obligatory for all children, there is no option. Of course the hundreds of thousands of Moroccans who have come to live in Spain demand that classes of Islamic religion be taught to their children in public schools … because the Spanish constitution guarantees religious freedom and for now it is allowed to teach religion in schools, halal menus, the school calendar adapts to ramadan …. There is no reciprocity in Islam, there has never been. In other African countries (Senegal, Mali …) there are holidays at Christmas, Ramadan … it is a circus.
Politicianophobia says
WHAT YEAR IS THIS?
Pat Knueven says
That article in that stupid so-called news paper was a real waste of valuable ink. However, Now all of us now know exactly what these scumbags want to do, undermine our society. They will never quit. Next time it will be something else. It will be something. People need to get informed about these people and stand up for our rights for a change. Before it is too late.
JCME! says
Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of good people who are Muslims. But it is the group with an agenda to destroy Christianity, Judaism and impose Islam as the supreme power over all in the United States and the West. Look how much progress they have made in Europe. They move in, form enclaves, don’t learn the local language or culture and demand prayer rooms and foot bathes in universities and halal diets at the expense of normal universal foods!!
Look out, they are coming!!