(RNS1-SEPT2) Muslim students in New York City public schools, like Nikhat Choudhury (center, wearing green) must decide whether to stay home for important holidays and risk falling behind on their studies. For use with RNS-RAMADAN-SCHOOLS, transmitted Sept. 2, 2010. Religion News Service photo courtesy of Nikhat Choudhury. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS2-SEPT1) Rabbis Laura A. Baum and Robert B. Barr of Congregation Beth Adam in Cincinnati, Ohio, broadcast worship services via their website http://www.OurJewishCommunity.org, for Jews who cannot make it to the synagogue, or who balk at sometimes high admission prices. For use with RNS-JEWS-COST, transmitted Sept. 1, 2010. Religion News Service photo by Alan Brown and courtesy of Congregation Beth Adam. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS) At a rally last weekend in Washington (Aug. 28) conservative commentator Glenn Beck positioned himself as the new leader of the religious right. But will evangelicals squeamish about his Mormon faith follow? For use with RNS-BECK-EVANGELICALS, transmitted Aug. 31, 2010. Religion News Service photo courtesy of The Glenn Beck Program. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS1-AUG30) Marwa Attia, a Muslim former student at the University of Florida in Gainesville, readies a tray of food as she prepares to break her daily Ramadan fast with more than 200 non-Muslim students raising money for a local homeless shelter. Some Muslims are going "green" by breaking their fasts with locally harvested food. See RNS-RAMADAN-GREEN transmitted Aug.30, 2010. Photo by Erum Junnuth of Islam on Campus. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS1-AUG27) Margaret Conetsco, 85, sits next to a wooden life-size statue of St. William inside the newly formed SS Robert & William Catholic Church in Euclid, Ohio. Conetsco donated the statue after her former church, St. Robert, merged with St. William. A statue of St. Robert was brought over, but St. William's never had a statue of St. William. For use with RNS-CHURCH-MERGE, transmitted Aug. 27, 2010. RNS photo by Marvin Fong / The Plain Dealer. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS2-AUG26) Julea Ward was dismissed from Eastern Michigan University after she declined to counsel a patient in a homosexual relationship as part of her counseling degree program. For use with RNS-GAY-COUNSEL, transmitted Aug. 26, 2010. RNS photo courtesy Gene Parunak/Alliance Defense Fund. | Download/Purchase this photo
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(RNS) The Rev. Janie Spahr, a self-described ``lesbian evangelist,'' is facing trial in the Presbyterian Church (USA) for marrying same-sex couples in California in 2008, when gay marriage was legal. Religion News Service file photo courtesy of That All May Freely Serve. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS1-AUG24) Brooklyn native Faatimah Knight chose Zaytuna College, which aims to be the nation's first accredited four-year Islamic university, because college "has to bring me more than book smarts." For use with RNS-MUSLIM-COLLEGE, transmitted Aug. 24, 2010. RNS photo courtesy Zaytuna College. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS2-AUG24) Shaykh Hamza Yusuf co-founded Zaytuna College in Berkeley, which welcomed its inaugural class Aug. 24. The college strives to be the country's first accredited four-year Muslim liberal arts college. For use with RNS-MUSLIM-COLLEGE, transmitted Aug. 24, 2010. RNS photo courtesy Zaytuna College. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS3-AUG24) UC Berkeley professor Hatem Bazian co-founded Zaytuna College in Berkeley, which welcomed its inaugural class Aug. 24. The college strives to be the country's first accredited four-year Muslim liberal arts college. For use with RNS-MUSLIM-COLLEGE, transmitted Aug. 24, 2010. RNS photo courtesy Zaytuna College. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS4-AUG24) Imam Zaid Shakir co-founded Zaytuna College in Berkeley, Calif., which welcomed its inaugural class Aug. 24. The college strives to be the country's first accredited four-year Muslim liberal arts college. For use with RNS-MUSLIM-COLLEGE, transmitted Aug. 24, 2010. RNS photo courtesy Zaytuna College. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS1-AUG23) The former St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church was destroyed by falling rubble from the World Trade Center during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and attempts to rebuild the church have run into bureaucratic delays. For use with RNS-WTC-CHURCH, transmitted Aug. 23, 2010. RNS photo courtesy Dimitrios Panagos/Greek Orthodox Arcidiocese of America. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS2-AUG23) Archbishop Demetrios of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, right (with gold vestments), leads a memorial service in 2001 at the site of the former St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, which was destroyed by falling rubble from the World Trade Center during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Attempts to rebuild the church have run into bureaucratic delays. For use with RNS-WTC-CHURCH, transmitted Aug. 23, 2010. RNS photo courtesy Dimitrios Panagos/Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS2-SEPT09) A girl lights a candle at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in this photo taken before the church was destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001. RNS file photo courtesy of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS1-AUG20) An image from Pamela Geller's Atlas Shrugged website features President Obama urinating on an American flag. Geller has become the de facto leader of the opposition to a proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero. For use with RNS-ISLAM-CRITIC, transmitted Aug. 20, 2010. | Download/Purchase this photo
September 2, 2010
NEWS STORY
As Ramadan ends, Muslims seek school holiday
By Nicole Neroulias
NEW YORK (RNS) For Nikhat Choudhury, the Muslim holidays of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha mean picking out new clothes, getting together with her cousins and feasting on homemade samosas and other traditional South Asian dishes.
In recent years, these joyous occasions have come with a struggle: Can she afford to stay home? New York City public schools allow absences for religious reasons, but Choudhury, 15, says it’s much harder to catch up on the work now that she’s in high school.
“I have to weigh the pros and cons of missing a test versus spending time with my family,” she said. “But these are big holidays. It’s like having to go to school on Christmas.”
Fortunately, Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, falls Sept. 10 this year, when New York City schools will already be closed for Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year observance. Choudhury is not sure what she’ll do in mid-November for Eid al-Adha, an annual observance that concludes the period when Muslims make the hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca.
Her dilemma is shared by hundreds of thousands of Muslim students around the country, except for those enrolled in the dozen or so school districts that recognize one or both of the Eids. These range from Dearborn, Mich., where more than half the 18,500 students are Muslim, to Burlington, Vt., whose 3,600 students include a growing number of African and Middle Eastern immigrants. Several New Jersey districts give one or both of the days off, as well.
After an enthusiastic rally on the steps of City Hall in June, the Coalition for Muslim School Holidays found itself eclipsed by the controversy over the Islamic community center and mosque that planners propose to build blocks from Ground Zero.
But the campaign continues, even as the 2010-11 school year gets underway, said Faiza N. Ali, community affairs director for the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg should be given credit for defending the right of Muslims to build the Islamic community center, she said, but local Muslims do not want to conflate the Ground Zero issue with Muslim school holidays. “We are not a one-issue-only community.”
The City Council voted 50-1 in favor of the holidays last year. In New York, schools must offer a minimum of 180 class days; Bloomberg has said that adding the Eids would require making up days elsewhere, and would create a slippery slope for the city’s myriad other groups with their own holidays—such as for Diwali, Hinduism’s autumnal festival of lights.
“We want to keep kids in school for more days, not less,” explained Jessica Scaperotti, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office, who said the holidays haven’t budged since the 1978 addition of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. “The city is not going to add any more days off.”
But the Islamic calendar rotates, putting only five of the next 24 Eids on a planned school day. The Department of Education has the flexibility to add another day or two to the academic calendar once in a while, Ali argues, noting that officials had considered rescheduling the first day of school this year due to the early Rosh Hashana observance.
Officials from districts that have added the Eids said they were convinced to do so after their absence rates doubled or tripled on those days.
“When those numbers get to a point where it’s inefficient to continue operations, when it’s impacting funding, then it became part of the discussion,” said David Mustonen, spokesman for the Dearborn district, which added the Eids eight years ago.
Last Eid al-Fitr, about 70 of Burlington High School’s 1,100 students stayed home, which is “a significant number for us,” explained Joan Collins, Burlington’s superintendent.
But with more than a million students from hundreds of ethnic and religious backgrounds, New York City’s massive school system doesn’t have such a clear line in the sand.
The 2002 Columbia University Muslims in NYC Project estimated that about 100,000 pupils are Muslim—about 12 percent of the student body—but the Department of Education only tracks racial demographics.
The addition of the Jewish high holy days was prompted by staff demographics as well as students; the coalition has not yet determined how many of the city’s educators are Muslim, or how Eid attendance rates historically compared to other school days.
Encouraging Muslim students and staff to stay home on the holidays and keeping track of the absent rate every year, rather than rallying on the steps of City Hall, may be a more effective strategy, especially if the anti-Muslim sentiment over the Park51 project worsens, some coalition members privately argue.
But, it means that teenagers like Choudhury would have to risk falling behind in their studies, especially if their teachers aren’t flexible about rescheduling lessons and exams.
If she had to do it again, her cousin Rebecca Chowdhury, now a sophomore at Ohio’s Kenyon College, said she would have celebrated properly, rather than worrying that she couldn’t afford to miss a day of Stuyvesant, one of the city’s most competitive high schools.
“I had to choose between doing well in school and celebrating an important holiday with my family,” she said. “My parents understood, but it was a big disappointment. Now, I’m too far away and it’s too expensive to go home.”
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