Thread: NY City Council closure of schools Islamic Feast on Sept. 11

Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha

NY City Council backs closure of schools for Islamic Feast on Sept. 11th

By Andrew Walden Thursday, July 2, 2009

The New York City Council June 30 called on Mayor Bloomberg to add Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha to the New York Public School calendar. The non-binding council vote, Resolution 1281, passed with only councilmember G. Oliver Koppel opposing, urges the schools be closed to celebrate the two Islamic feast days. The vote comes as the culmination of a three-years lobbying effort by New York Islamist groups and what supporters such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations describe as “over 80 Labor and Community Organizations.â€

Bloomberg Protests Muslim Holidays for NYC Schools

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 8:43 PM

NEW YORK - New York’s City Council has passed a non-binding resolution asking the Education Department to observe two Muslim holidays—one marking the end of Islam’s holy month of Ramadan and the other celebrating the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son.

But Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the city is too diverse for schools to observe every holiday.

Now it's unclear whether the proposal will become policy, as the council does not have direct authority over the school year -- yet Bloomberg just relinquished control of the school system to a newly appointed board of education, Fox News reported.

"Right now the degree of control the mayor has over the education system is completely unclear," Councilman G. Oliver Koppell, the only council member to vote against the resolution Tuesday, told Fox News.

New York City has the nation’s largest school system. A 2008 study by Columbia University’s Teachers College estimates at least 10 percent of its 1.1 million students are Muslim.

The city council resolution asks the Bloomberg administration to observe the holidays in schools and asks the state to require it by amending education law.

Bloomberg could still block the measure. Though the city just reappointed its board of education, the state Senate could take action soon to hand Bloomberg back the reins.

Bloomberg predicted as much Wednesday, saying the new board would "serve until Albany rectifies its inaction and reauthorizes mayoral control."

And the new city school board is considered to be largely aligned with Bloomberg anyway.

Koppell, who sides with Bloomberg, said he's concerned that the calendar change would only benefit a relatively small fraction of the student body at the expense of the school year.

"If we accommodate every group's wishes to have off on religious days, we'll have a huge number of days on which kids are off from school," he said. "This is a slippery slope which we'll be going down. ... In my view, the school year's too short as it is."

The holidays are Eid Ul-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, and Eid Ul-Adha, which celebrates the willingness of Ibrahim -- known as Abraham to Christians and Jews -- to sacrifice his son. It is the most important Islamic holiday

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