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June 14, 2006
US: Baltimore Schools Will Not Have Muslim Holidays
We reported on June 9 that the head of the Baltimore County Muslim Council has been making attempts to remove all Jewish holidays from the Baltimore County's schools calendar for the year 2007 to 2008, in Baltimore, Maryland in the northeastern US.
Dr Bash Pharoan, head of the Baltimore County Muslim Council has been petitioning the schools board for three years to have two Muslim holidays instated onto the school calendar, those of Eid ul-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.
The reasoning given for not having schools closed on those days is because there are not many Muslim teachers or students, and when there are enough teachers of Muslim faith leaving, then an official holiday would be considered. The cost of a substitute teacher covering an absent teacher can range from $$59.66 to $103.05 per day.
Currently, if a Muslim teacher or student wishes to be absent for either of those days, they are allowed to do so.
But there are far more Christian and Jewish teachers, and their absence would cause problems for some schools, so on Good Friday and also on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur the schools have an official holiday.
Pharoan has tried to use anti-semitism to argue that if Muslims cannot have their holidays, then neither can the Jews. Arthur Abramson, executive director of the Baltimore Jewish Council, has described Pharoan's tactics as " an attempt to wage de-facto warfare between Muslims and Jews in Baltimore County. This has nothing to do with the best interests of the school district nor the students."
Earlier in the year, an ad hoc meeting of the school board in Baltimore decided not to recommend the addition of Muslim holidays for the 2007 to 2008 year.
The Baltimore Sun now reports that on Tuesday night (June 13) a meeting was held to decide on the calendar days.
Apparently the Baltimore County Muslim Council had changed tactics, arguing that all religious holidays should be banned from the school calendar, and to allow only federal holidays and those sanctioned by Maryland state law.
Last night eight members of the Baltimore County school board decided unanimously to continue with Good Friday and Rosh Hashana (Yom Kippur falls on a weekend, so id not included), and not to introduce new holidays to placate the local Muslim activists. They drew for their decision on a ruling of the state Board of Education, which stipulates that the school system cannot cancel classes purely on the grounds of religion.
Pharoan has not said what he will do if Muslim holidays are not instated, but he has not ruled out the possibility of legal action.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at June 14, 2006 7:13 AM
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