Ramadan Controversy in Public Schools
Oscar Avila writes for the Chicago Tribune:
[A] small but vocal group of parents argued that Muslims should follow the traditions of other immigrants and not expect special treatment. "There is already some animosity because the demographics of Dearborn Heights are changing a lot faster than make people comfortable," said Jumana Judeh, mother of two children in the district. "These kinds of issues make those growing pains worse."
The school board formally reprimanded two top administrators for their handling of the debate. And some Muslim parents worry that they will be blamed as many non-Muslim families scramble to find last-minute child care. ... Tom Hutton, staff attorney for the [National School Boards Association], said the mix of religion and schools is already a volatile issue, one that becomes even more complicated as the makeup of the student population becomes more diverse. "Politically, it's very tough for schools when they're caught in the middle trying to be neutral and fair to every religion," Hutton said.
The reason that it is so tough is that schools have long-standing policies to provide special accommodation to Christian beliefs - for example, there is no requirement that schools be closed for Good Friday, but just about all schools in America do close anyway. That may have seemed fine when America was almost entirely Christian, but as religious diversity increases do does the potential for conflict.
More and more religious groups will see the special treatment accorded to Christianity as unacceptable and they will, quite naturally, expect to get the same advantages. Schools will then be faced with having to create more and more "official" holidays for more and more religions. Or, just maybe, they could stop creating official holidays for any religious faiths - including Christianity.
Just a thought.
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The United States of America was founded on Judeo-Christian principles. We celebrate holidays that are Judeo-Christian, and predominantly Christian. If anyone is opposed to that, he or she is free to leave our country and go to a country that more adequately conforms to their beliefs and practices.
Which specifically Christian principles, exactly, and where in the Constitution are they to be found?
That’s a matter of culture, not government, and if you notice the nature of those celebrations have changed dramatically. The most common aspects of most celebrations of Christmas, for example, have nothing whatsoever to do with traditional, orthodox Christianity.
Why? Why not work to change America in an effort to make it a place where people of all religions, or no religion can feel equally welcome and at home? Why not work to change America in order to eliminate the various forms of religious and Christian privilege which continue to infect society, government, and culture?
chicago paper states that muslims should follow other immigrants and not receive special treatment. While in fact there are millions of Americans who chose to follow Islam. Get your English straight before you start criticizing Muslims who are more than likely not immigrants. Stop being so narrow-minded and ignorant. Last time I checked we have freedom of religion in America, so if you don’t like other religions being practiced here then you are more than welcome to leave the U.S.A. All they want to do is practice their religion. We get jewish holidays off, christian, kwanza, why not Muslim holidays? Not being able to acknowledge Islam as one of the 3 major religions in the WORLD would be ignorant.IT’s really easy to co-exsist. No- really it is.