About Me

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Hussam has been a lifelong human rights activist who is passionate about promoting democratic societies, in the US and worldwide, in which all people, including immigrants, workers, minorities, and the poor enjoy freedom, justice, economic justice, respect, and equality. Mr. Ayloush frequently lectures on Islam, media relations, civil rights, hate crimes and international affairs. He has consistently appeared in local, national, and international media. Full biography at: http://hussamayloush.blogspot.com/2006/08/biography-of-hussam-ayloush.html

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

US schools ponder Muslim holidays

2 comments:

Guy DeWhitney: Heretic Crusader said...

How come AFP doesn't like CAIR?
I do not se the problem here... all religions have the right to take holidays off of school without penalty... this even includes Wiccans!
At the same time that Christmas and Thanksgiving have almost been completely made secular, why bring up religion in the school calendar?
Again, it seems like Muslims in Armeica are ignoring the last 200 years of history and are trying to put officially recognised religion back into the American public arean... just when it was almost gone!

Hussam Ayloush said...

Guy,

Muslims are only asking for equal treatment. If schools see it fit to close down on certain holidays (Christmas, Hanukkah, Easter, ...) to accommodate large student population of Jews and Christians, then it is only fair to do the same on Muslim holidays in areas where there is a large number of Muslim students.

It is not fair to penalize such students and force them to miss a school day.

It is less about celebrating any one specific religion and more about accommodating, as practical and as fair as possible, all students.