New York City Council Says Schools Should Close on Muslim Holidays

Can you imagine having to go to school on Christmas Day?

It would never happen in million years, right?

Well, some Muslim parents in New York City are asking the city's public school system to allow their kids to take their most important holidays off as well.

Right now, New York City public schools are closed on Christmas and Good Friday.

They're also closed for the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year), Yom Kippur and Passover.

Last week, the New York City Council overwhelmingly passed a resolution urging the school system to close the schools on two Muslim holidays as well - Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.

("Eid" rhymes with "seed.")

Eid al-Fitr marks the end of the Muslim holy month, Ramadan.

And Eid al-Adha marks the end of the Hajj.

That's the period of time when many Muslims travel to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

The city council's resolution is non-binding.

That means council members cannot force the school system to cancel classes on those holidays.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says he's against adding the Muslim holidays to the school vacation calendar.

"If you close the schools for every single holiday, there won't be any school," Bloomberg told reporters last week.

According to the New York Times, the mayor said schools are closed on major Christian and Jewish holidays because of "a very large number of kids who practice" those religions.

But the Times says New York City's Muslim population now numbers roughly 600,000.

And according to a Columbia University study cited by the Associated Press, at least 10% of all New York City public school students are Muslim.

The dates of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha change from year to year, because they're based on the lunar (moon-based) calendar, which is different from our day-to-day, solar (sun-based) calendar.

This year, Muslims will celebrate Eid al-Fitr on Monday, September 21st.

And Eid al-Adha actually begins on Thanksgiving Day this year - November 26th.

So Muslim kids will have the holiday off anyway.

But that's just a lucky coincidence.

According to the Times, some New Jersey school systems already close for the Eids.

So does the school system in Dearborn, Michigan, which has a large Muslim population.

18-year-old Rebecca Chowdhury just graduated from New York City's Stuyvesant High School.

She says she often had to miss celebrating the Eids because they fell on school days.

And she felt that she had to be at school.

"It created a great divide between me and my family," she said, according to the Times.

Some Muslims think Mayor Bloomberg might change his mind about adding the holidays to the school calendar.

Why?

"It's an election year," says Imam Talib Abdur-Rashid, in an interview with the Times, meaning the mayor should think twice before giving Muslim voters a reason to vote against him.

What do you think?