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In U.S. cities where Muslim populations are growing fast, Muslim families are pushing to make their holidays part the calendar in schools. Some cities have adopted the idea – but in the nation’s largest school system – New York City – the debate continues. Lily Jamali reports from New York. (Photo: Dan Dickinson) Download MP3
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MARCO WERMAN: Religious holidays are part of the school calendar in all parts of the United States. In US cities with growing Muslim populations, the question is whether to include Muslim holidays on the list. Some cities have adopted the idea. But not New York City, home to the nation’s largest school system. Lily Jamali has our story.
LILY JAMALI: Huyam Belguet is spending part of her eighth birthday at her mosque in Queens, New York. She’s performing what’s known as ablution, cleaning her hands, face and feet before she begins to pray. For Huyam and her family, the Dar al-Dawah mosque is a regular stop. They come several times a week for prayers and lessons on the Koran. And they’re always here on the holidays of Eid al-Fitr, a celebration at the end of Ramadan, and Eid al-Adha, about two months later. New York City’s Muslim population is hoping those two holidays will soon be incorporated into the school calendar.
MALE SPEAKER: What do you want?
GROUP: Muslim holidays.
MALE SPEAKER: When do you want it?
GROUP: Now.
JAMALI: At a recent rally in support of the idea, Huyam Belguet and her mother were standing in the front row.
HUYAM BELGUET: I’m here to tell mayor Bloomberg to make a school holiday on the calendar. It’s not fair because the other religious holidays are in the calendar and they get their school off. But us, we don’t get it. The school’s still on. And we have to choose between school or practice our religion and do our holiday. I always have to pick.
JAMALI: It’s a choice Huyam’s mother, Isabel Bucaram, spoke out loudly against in front of the hundreds who showed up on the steps of New York’s City Hall.
ISABEL BUCARAM: I say no to your selective consideration. I say no to your fake excuses of incorporating holidays into the calendar.
JAMALI: Last year, New York’s City Council passed a resolution in support of giving all city school children the day off if either Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha fall on a school day. The council unanimously passed it. But it’s up to the city’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, since his administration oversees the schools. So far, he’s resisted the idea.
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG: Everybody would like to be recognized but the truth of the matter is we need more school days not less. And I’ve said this a number of times, we’re not going to add any more days. Our kids need more education not less.
ROBERT JACKSON: I don’t buy his argument.
JAMALI: City councilman Robert Jackson, the Council’s only Muslim, says the mayor’s stance constitutes a double standard. Several Christian and Jewish holidays are official days off for all students.
JACKSON: I agree that school children are not in school enough, but then he has a way to resolve that by increasing the school calendar. And so, all we’re asking for is inclusion, respect, and understanding.
JAMALI: Measures like this have already been passed in other cities, including Dearborn, Michigan and Trenton, New Jersey. While the notion of Muslim holy days as public school holidays might seem unusual in an American city, supporters point to the numbers. Here in New York, the Muslim population is growing. Today, they comprise an estimated 10 to 12 percent of school children. That’s according to Louis Cristillo, a researcher at Columbia University. And he says their approach to achieving recognition shows how American they really are.
LOUIS CRISTILLO: They have the experience in civic and political engagement that their parents may never have gotten in their home countries. In that way, you have a new generation of American Muslims who are familiar with and know the power of engagement. They’re acting as full-fledged Americans. There’s nothing foreign or sinister about what they’re doing.
JAMALI: Mother Isabel Bucaram says she got involved partly to show her children the power of this kind of engagement.
BUCARAM: I tell my kid, you know you have to be active, we talk about voting, we talk about community service, we talk about volunteering, we talk about being part of a school. I volunteer. If there’s a meeting I’m there or my husband is there. This is part of the community, and so it means a lot to her.
JAMALI: For now Bucaram hopes some patience and a lot of faith will hold the answer to her family’s prayers. For The World, I’m Lily Jamali in New York.
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