Author Topic: Petition to White House Calls on Public Schools to Recognize Muslim Holidays  (Read 1102 times)

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Offline mystery-ak

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http://www.cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/dan-joseph/petition-white-house-calls-public-schools-recognize-muslim-holidays


Petition to White House Calls on Public Schools to Recognize Muslim Holidays
January 14, 2014 - 3:24 PM
By Dan Joseph

A petition on White House.gov is calling for President Obama to support an effort to encourage public schools to recognize Muslim holidays on their official school calendars.

The petition was put on the "We the People" site last month by a group of Muslim students from Virginia and has garnered about 28 thousand signatures so far.

"With the growing population of Muslims in he United States of America (including first, second, third and fourth generation) we believe it is high time that Muslim holidays are recognized by schools throughout this nation," reads the petition text.

"Unfortunately many Muslim families are forced to choose between their children's education and their religious obligations.  Muslim school children and staff deserve the same benefits afforded to the followers of other faiths."

Efforts to have American public schools recognize Muslim holidays have garnered support from the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).

"I think there's been a push nationwide for the recognition of Muslim holidays in school systems," said CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper in an interview with the Christian Post.

"Primarily in school systems where there's a large number of Muslim Students."

A petition on "We the People" must acquire 100,000 signatures within a month in order to get an official response form the White House.

As of this writing, the petition would need over 71 thousand additional signatures by this Thursday in order to qualify.
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Offline Rapunzel

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Go back to the middle east...
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Offline aligncare

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Imagine, the gall. A not small segment of the worldwide Muslim population wants the great Satan disassembled and thrown onto the ash heap of history, and in the midst of this RELIGIOUS jihad America is supposed to celebrate Islamic holidays by closing schools and federal buildings! Excuse me. Why should we?

Offline EC

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Excuse me. Why should we?

Exactly. Why should you?

I had Muslim students in my classes. Good kids, mostly, and their parents were totally hot on them getting a full education. Very involved, would not only attend parent teacher nights but were not exactly shy about phoning or visiting if they were in the slightest bit worried about their child's learning. Wish more parents were like that! Though meeting two parents on a Friday afternoon after a double period of the sink group was always draining!

But, a couple times a year, they'd bring in a note. "XX will not be in school from this date to this date, as it is an important holiday for us. Please can you give him the material you will be covering while he is absent." No biggie. We knew it was coming and prepared accordingly.
Got exactly the same note from most of the Jewish kids..
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Offline aligncare

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That's fine, EC. I understand. I'm just not feeling very charitable at the moment. That comes from feeling threatened with annihilation. The prospect of a nuclear armed Iran tends to do that to me.

Offline EC

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I sort of don't worry about it.

When I were a kid, it was the Russians. Then the Chinese. Then the Pakistanis. Then the Norks. I am still surprisingly unexploded.
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Offline jmyrlefuller

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From a practical standpoint, this is a bad idea.

The secular world has chosen a calendar set by the Roman Catholic Church for its standard. Why? Because it was the Catholic calendar that made the necessary calculations to keep the seasons and astronomical events consistent from year to year-- the key advantage of a solar calendar. When the calendar they originally used (based on the secular Roman republic calendar) went out of phase, Pope Gregory fixed it.

The Jewish calendar also strives for it, but it's based on a lunar calendar. So, instead of a leap day every few years, they have a whole leap month every few years to keep in phase with the earth's orbit. (The scheduling of Easter is the last remaining relic from the Jewish calendar on the Christian liturgical calendar.) Obviously, having some years a whole month longer than others could be a big problem. Still, the difference in days is small enough that it makes acknowledging Jewish holidays within the Christian calendar at least feasible.

Now, compare that with the Muslim calendar. Just to give you an idea of the complete scientific ignorance of Islam, the Quran explicitly forbids leap-years, saying that those that follow it are being "led into error." Their calendar is based loosely on the lunar calendar, which is a full eleven days short of a full solar year. That means every 16 years or so, the Muslim holidays happen in a totally different season than at the start. If Ramadan occurs in the summer, 16 years from that point it will be in the winter. In the areas of the world where the seasons aren't significant, that's not a big deal. In temperate climates-- it's a pretty big deal.

Naturally, for those following a solar calendar, the two are completely incompatible.
« Last Edit: January 15, 2014, 08:05:13 pm by jmyrlefuller »
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Offline Fishrrman

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I sort of don't worry about it.

When I were a kid, it was the Russians. Then the Chinese. Then the Pakistanis. Then the Norks. I am still surprisingly unexploded.

Just wait.

Offline aligncare

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I sort of don't worry about it.

When I were a kid, it was the Russians. Then the Chinese. Then the Pakistanis. Then the Norks. I am still surprisingly unexploded.

I had to think about this a while before responding.

I would say the Russians et al were sane enough to avoid at all costs a nuclear confrontation. I'm not so sure about iranian mullahs.