Mass. School district to close tuesday for ISLAMIC holiday?!

Originally posted by AllUrChips
Whatever happened to ethnocentrism being a POSITIVE thing for a country?!

That's funny... I thought it was...We used to have Christmas break. now we have winter break... Easter break became spring break etc....

I guess including other religions is some how...NOT ethnocentric?

reply to post by sageofmonticello


Believe I can say whats wrong with it. In this day and age most school districts are cutting out Halloween and Christmas due to not wanting to observe religious holidays and to keep some kids from feeling 'left out'. Since this is the case, I see no difference in the muslim holidays and any other religions .So why would you allow a day off for theirs? But not let kids celebrate any other religions? Since when do we have days off for all the kids for a minority's religion? I can see letting those that are muslim have the day off, but the rest should be there.

One nation under God... and Allah... and Buddha... and Skywalker...

I understand why you would think this is too much...but I don't see what's so bad about it and I feel you are overreacting.

Eid is a VERY important holiday for muslims.

How many holidays do schools take off for Christian holidays? Christmas, Easter(It might be on a sunday, but schools usually have off the monday or friday, if I'm remembering correctly.)

One day for muslims is only fair. Unless you want to get rid of holiday breaks for christians?
Trust me...no school will ever take off the whole month of ramadan.


Allurchips, I don't think you are being insensitive...but many who replied are.


Plus, don't school districts have the right to decide what holidays they want to recognize? This isn't the federal government deciding this, and it shouldn't be. There really hasn't been a breach of separation of church and state.
In a diverse country such as the U.S., we have to learn to accommodate for everyone. Which means that there should be some schools that take off for Muslim holidays.

And think of the children...do you think they mind having another day off of school? I think most children wouldn't even mind taking off the whole month of ramadan lol.

Watch out for them muslims guys they're taking over!

reply to post by sageofmonticello


STRONG word freedom im in the uk and
guess what it is offensive to islam (cant spell not bothered)
to wear a poppy WTF is going on
this is our country so should they not respect our ways
as they expect us to respect theirs

Wow.
I think many are missing the point.
Crosses, Rosary beads, praying'; are all being inhibited by athiest groups and the ACLU.
Yet, we bend over backwards for islam.

Our culture, our national identity is being re-written by metrosexual, politically correct losers afraid to offend anyone. (except christians)

reply to post by Dimithae


bang on the button well said

To be really honest, this isn't even an issue of religion. It is an issue of the fact that all those Muslim kids won't be coming to school that day anyways, so enough of the people are gone that the school feels that money would be better spent taking the day off and making it up when all the kids can be there. It is the same thing in the flu season - when enough kids get sick, the school districts decide to cancel school for everyone because not enough kids will show up.

It's not as if the school district is forcing all the kids to practice Eid. The school district is acknowledging that the Muslim kids will all be missing school anyways, so there is no reason to have school.

But, if it was about religion, I suppose we should get rid of Christmas as a holiday schools take off. I mean, seriously. CHRIST-MASS. It is clearly Christian. Why is it okay to take off school for Christian holidays but not for Muslim holidays? Oh, and "Spring Break" is often held during Holy Week, the week before Easter. If you are a Christian, these are the two most important days of the year. But since you are not a Muslim, you do not understand which of their days are the most important in the year, and you as such do not understand why they would take the day off regardless of if class was cancelled or not.

If these two arguments don't convince people that this is silly (I am mostly rehashing what others have said) I will rehash the last thing which is, if this is not your district, why do you care what they decide to do in their district? It is not your place to tell other local districts what to do. Or, have you decided that the Federal Government SHOULD be intervening in people's lives when they don't practice the life you practice? Do you want the Federal Government out of YOUR life, but in everyone else's? If the Federal Government agrees with your world paradigm, then it's okay for it to exercise unwarranted power? Hypocrisy.

And finally: even if it was your district, who cares? All the kids will be happy for having the day off. It does not harm anyone. It does not cause anyone to practice Islam who is not Islam. It does not force any beliefs on anyone else. It does not even take this day from the school year - the day will be tacked on at the end just like Christmas and New Years and etc. The only people who care are self-righteous parents who think that only their good white Christian kids deserve holidays. The people most directly affected by this, the children, are all leaping for joy. When there are good reasons for why this is not infringing on anyone's rights (as I have outlined above), and then the people affected by the decision are happy about it, why should YOUR sensibilities take precedence? The school district decided this was the best course of action (whether you are in the district or not) and the children rejoiced, so keep your moralistic sensibilities away from their rights to decide what to do with their school district and how to make themselves happiest.

reply to post by AllUrChips


well whatever happened to Easter,Xmas being holidays?whatever happened to "in god we trust" when you have a whole bunch of atheists over here?cant we stop fighting over religion for a second?

Originally posted by AllUrChips
So I didnt know where to post this mods please move accordingly. This is TOO FAR to me. What is going on in the US. We have become a nation of sissies. Whatever happened to ethnocentrism being a POSITIVE thing for a country?! We should not be letting this to affect the way we do things in THIS country, If they want to celebrate the holiday, then stay home, like the jews do when they have a holiday not celebrated in this country! This is an outrage Im sorry.
www.theblaze.com...

Currently, the district closes for some Jewish and Christian holidays, thus closing for an Islamic holiday is being defended as a common-sense ideal.

Oh yes. Simply horrible. This shall not... *yawn* stand at all. Woo. Go fighting crusaders... blah blah..

Really, man? Is the world so gloriously problem-free that you have to find time to gripe about kids getting one day off a year for the holiday of a religion you don't believe in? Heaven forbid.

Originally posted by luciddream
If you let US muslims get their own holiday, what about other religions?

If this keeps up, we would be having holiday like half the month....

Does any muslim country allow.. um lets say... Yom Kippur?



If someone gets a piece of the cake, everyone will want a piece!

That what I am thinking. Just about everyday of the year is a holiday to someone somewhere. Kids will spend so little time in school they will be old enough to have beer with their lunch before that get to 8th grade. And you will only be able to get to the bank and post office one day a month.

Originally posted by AllUrChips
So I didnt know where to post this mods please move accordingly. This is TOO FAR to me. What is going on in the US. We have become a nation of sissies. Whatever happened to ethnocentrism being a POSITIVE thing for a country?! We should not be letting this to affect the way we do things in THIS country, If they want to celebrate the holiday, then stay home, like the jews do when they have a holiday not celebrated in this country! This is an outrage Im sorry.
www.theblaze.com...

The part I put in bold is the most telling part of this post.
It's pretty clear this poster is not against extra religious holidays or Islam itself, but any religion that is not his or her own.

Originally posted by sageofmonticello
reply to post by AllUrChips

 

This doesn't bother me.

Not even a little bit. What is wrong with observing a Muslim holiday? It is not like this was issued federally.
This is the result of a local democratic process. This locality decided they wanted to do this, it is legal.

What is the big problem you have with it? It is Ok, for 1 religion to have days off but not another? Why? What is wrong with it? Do you just not like the Muslim religion? Is it the break in tradition of only honoring traditional Christian holidays? Seriously, what is your beef?

This is what freedom is all about.

edit on 7-11-2011 by sageofmonticello because: (no reason given)

Well i can tell you one thing, christians do not get holidays off, doesn't matter what day it falls on. Oh sure you can take off if you want and take a big fat 0 for your work or test if they give a test or quiz, other than that the U.S. does not recognize christian holidays except christmas and thats not even a christian holiday it is a pagan holiday dressed up to make it look like its for christ when it really has nothing to do with him and more about a pagan god who will grant you a good harvest and healthy children if you give him "treats" (originally sacrifices).

reply to post by lonewolf19792000


Which christian holidays aren't rooted in peganism?

Originally posted by mayabong
reply to post by lonewolf19792000

 

Which christian holidays aren't rooted in peganism?

Pentecost and Easter. Our Pentecost is actually the jewish holiday Passover. Yeshua was crucified on Passover, and Pentecost happened 50 days later (we recieved Ruach ha Kodesh, the Holy Spirit). Thats all we have left that the Roman Catholic Church couldn't corrupt.

Originally posted by AllUrChips
reply to post by relpobre000

 

There are many GOOD thing about being ethnocentric. Look it up again. EVERY country is ethnocentric. ( means they feel their cultures and values and beliefs are superior to anothers. So how is that bad?

wooooow! Hold me back!

Many many countries are NOT ethnocentric. Take South Africa. Why are we called the Rainbow Nation? We embrace all cultures!

Please consider these satements after taking a long hard look into yourself:

1. When you were about to be concieved, do you think anyone came to you and asked you into which culture you would like to be born?? So, what if you were born into a Muslim family? Would you still feel the same about getting ONE tiny little day off school to participate in one of TWO of the holiest Islamic days?

2. I am a teacher. I love and work with children. In my group I have white, black, Indian, Muslim and coloured children. Why should one group's religious beliefs dominate holidays for centuries while all the others get ignored??

3. In my view, the school system is exremely biased and prejudiced. When studying for your teachers degree they hammer on and on about teaching the child to be non biased and non judgmental. Yet, we have a predominant Christian holiday calender.

4. As I teacher, I observe that there are few really good teachers left. Teachers who are truly concerned with the education, development and growth of ALL the facets of the child as a tender human being. Instead, most teachers, like my 12 year old's teachers, are focussing totally on the child becoming a non thinking, obedient, no questioning, contented person who will submit blindly and happily to authority.

So, in my view, as many family days, days spent in religious or spiritual practice with family and other people, are far more meaningful to the growth of the child than another day of shaping the child into sheep's clothes.

That day being flavoured by Muslim, Bhuddist, Hidu, Christian, Vedict, Harri Krishna, or whatever!!!

I thought we had the freedom to choose whatever religion we wanted in this country. I agree with separation of church and state angle, but seriously might as well have school Christmas day, as it to is a religious holiday. Lets say this school has a high Islamic population, wouldn't it be singling them out as far as catching up on homework (it's not like miss work = lose a sick day, it's more like miss the lecture portion = good luck figuring out homework).
This is only a big deal to some because of the particular religion in question, if a school decided to hold school Christmas day people would throw a fit, (despite using the separation of church and state as an excuse in this argument) Islam does not = terrorist. (just because a couple organizations are Islamic does not make that whole side of the map that way. Don't forget we have had home-grown terrorists in the past.)
I'm atheist,and even I can respect someones choice to celebrate their day. I say Christian's get Christmas and Easter, the least we could do is cut the Jewish, Islamic, Hinduism, Buddhism ECT... some slack and give em' their day to,as long as enough of the population in the area represent these religions.

Gee, can't imagine why extremists of certain religious denominations would ever want to target us. After all, it's not as if our own religious zealots are full of any such similar hate.

I swear these days ATS had become rife with bigots and political extremists.

Originally posted by Carseller4
This is not a federal holiday. What happened to the so-called separation of church and state?

Where is the ACLU?

You do know what christmas, and easter are... right?

Why does the world have to be biased to christians?
It doesn't matter what religion gets "days off", if one religion does then the other also has the same right.

You know, without religion petty arguments like these would go away for good.