Last year I blogged about Muslims in Baltimore County, Maryland, demanding that Muslim holidays be added to the government school calendar.
Last week, school board members refused the request. From the article:
Baltimore County public school officials have said that adding Muslim holidays to the school calendars is unlawful and “irresponsible,” marking another setback in attempts across the region to add the holidays…School officials, however, stood firm by a state law that disallows public schools from endorsing any religion, saying the school calendar can include scheduled closures only for holidays that cause low attendance rates countywide.
…
The anti-discrimination committee has pushed its request for the past several years, calling it an issue of equality because schools recognize Jewish and Christian holidays.
So it isn’t a matter of discriminating against Muslims. If followers of Allah become a large enough majority that schools are half-empty during Muslim holidays, the state may choose to close schools. Is it all about…economics?
Being the very opinionated person I am, my view (that the religion of Islam is incompatible with the West) is on the record . What’s yours?
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{ 47 comments }
LaShawn,
This is a tough issue, but let’s be clear. You don’t believe Islam is a legitimate religion, let alone compatible with the West. In any case, I wouldn’t let any school for any religious holidays at all. Christmas and Thanksgiving are pretty much secular celebrations in that almost everyone recognizes the customs and traditions of both those days. Honoring religious holidays with a day off from school or work comes very close to establishing a national religion.
By the way, why didn’t you let me list the name of my podcast? It’s music (no rap) and as the name implies very eclectic and should have broad appeal.
I do think it is prudent for the schools to consider the economic ramifications of low attendance rates during religious holidays. And I would find the inclusion of Muslim holidays acceptable WITHIN REASON (but we know that the religion of peace is not very reasonable so this could spell trouble). Think of it this way: Christian students across our entire USA were granted Christmas, in fact, three weeks off for the holiday. Christmas may or may not coincide with Hanukkah, depending on the year, so one cannot claim that two religions are always being served by giving three weeks in December off. The dates off always default to Christmas, not Hanukkah. Only the schools in Jewishly populated areas like NYC (in other words, not across the USA) gave off a couple of days at Passover and I think Yom Kippur, right? I’ll need a New Yorker to verify that for me. So on the face of it, it would seem that Christian kids got the better deal.
Jews have many holy days that prohibit going to work or school if one chooses to be religiously observant(Yom Kippur, Rosh Hoshana, which has two holy days, Sukkot which has four holy days, Simchat Torah, Passover, also four holy days, and Shavuot, two holy days) but only two or three days total were given off and again, only in a few school districts. (Incidentally, Hanukkah is not a holy week so one can go to work and school during that time.) Yet religious Jews whose children were in public school NEVER ASKED for these days off nor to have the holidays included in the school calendar; the schools voluntarily gave the days off because so many kids would be missing on those days. Most Jews in our generation for whom it is important to observe these holy days simply send their children to Jewish schools so the issue of imposing on the gentile world is avoided. If the school district, in the interest of fairness since they did it for the Jews, wants to VOLUNTARILY give off a couple of days during the school year because they have a large population of Muslim students and therefore the school will be emptied out anyway, then I can’t argue with that. But to demand it, and to demand that ALL their holidays be noted on the calendar, is excessive and just another power play.
Frankly, I think maybe the schools should just say look, we have a winter break, period, and not give off any more holidays to anyone. It is just getting too complicated. However, the schools should offer religious students who miss class in order to observe their religion the opportunity to make up their classwork without being penalized.
Angel – I certainly do think Islam is a legit religious system. (I’m defining legitimate as “in accordance with established rules, principles, or standards.”) I believe Secular Humanism is a legit and well-established religious system in the U.S. I don’t believe either leads to the one true God, however. That’s a different matter.
I deleted the podcast reference because I thought it was out of place and off-topic. But I’m feeling flexible today, so feel free to re-post.
Whoah, clarification of my post — I was tallying up all the holy days in Judaism to make the point that the number of days certain schools gave off for the Jewish students (two or three) does not come close to encompassing all the holy days Jewish students needed off. Point being, religious Jews did not ask for all these days to be officially recognized by the school district. Because even secular Jews tend to observe Passover and Yom Kippur, it made sense that the attendance would be low on those holy days but not others.
LaShawn,
Thanks for letting me re-list it. My podcast is available on ITunes. The name is “The Dream Eclectic” a wide variety of music according to theme. I think it’s pretty cool. Thanks again for letting me list it.
Also, thanks for the clarification of your stance on Islam. But, where are you on only allowing Christmas and Thanksgiving as holidays that certainly have religious origins, but are fairly secular now?
Angel – Let me think about that and get back to you.
batyah – I agree about the general winter break period. Spring break, too. If practioners of various religions living in the US and sending kids to government schools can move their holy days to winter/spring break schedules, that would solve a lot.
LOL! Well, LaShawn, if not for the fact that the moonbats love their vacation time, I think Christmas break and Easter break would have gone by the wayside long ago, because, you know, anything associated with Christians just can’t be good in the eyes of a libtard . . .
I have a hard time accepting Christmas to be a secular holiday. I just won’t!
I would not like schools to have a Muslim holiday. I am a very spiritual person who recognizes the beauty in most religions…except that one. I am not impressed, to say the least, by those who follow it and what kind of people it creates. Truly, I am disgusted by the whole culture and don’t want in my life or country in any way shape or form. I think they are creepy. Now I have to be “anonymous” because some crazed Muslim may come after me.
I say no for the same reasons La Shawn says.
Well, actually, Anonymous, if the truth be known, I feel the same way you do in my heart, but was trying to be objective and fair in my original post.
Just creepy, not ooky too?
Oh, come on, Angel. Even you have to admit that black body bags with little eyehole slits slinking around our streets are creepy, creepy, creepy! Any religion that has a holy book that calls for the wholesale slaughter of “non-believers” is creepy (and don’t tell me about that verse that says ‘there is no compulsion in religion’ BLECH!) “Beheadings, and bombings, and hijackings, oh my!” Too much barbarity for modern times. Definitely reepy. Ooky too.
I feel sorry for most muslim women.
eating with a niqab and chador very difficult
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPc65cYtFjI
and no muslim holidays in schools, they are allready asking enough special privledges as it is.
Give an inch take a mile.
Should we start allowing the accused in courtrooms to Wear Hijabs on the witness stand or should they be allowed as dress for public school teachers or health professionals? Should we allow Muslim taxi drivers to refuse to pick up anyone with liquor on his possession? Should Muslim grocery check-out clerks be allowed to refuse to handle pork products? Should our public swimming pools be required to have Muslim only swims?
No, Islam is not compatible with the West.
Dianne,
listen to the cries of this women being arrested because she wasn’t dressing islamic enough.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x66h5kAKg5g
This is what the muslims world wants for America, and they are doing ti little by little in ways you state above.
Islam is compatable with the west. it is idiotic to argue otherwise. do you say christianity is incompatible when ant abortionist campaign, or when gays arnt allowed to join the church, or when a lone gunman kill many students?
THere are many muslims in the US, and the US being a multicultural/racial/faith society has to honour their religious days if this is given to other religions.
Talk about a slippery slope. What about the neo-pagans? Shouldn’t they get their holidays off as well?
La Shawn,
I happen to think Islam is stuck in the 6th century and is completely incompatible with the West. Can you imagine trying to convince this nation that we should follow Islamic rules much like in the Middle East? I’m sorry, but the religion of Islam would be asking everyone in the West to take a giant step (about 5,000 years ago) backwards. How many liberal women would be willing to submit, and I mean submit to everything? In Iran, girls are considered adults at the age of 9 years. How’s that for compatibility?
Thanksgiving and Christmas are both national legal holidays. Schools take off for legal, national holidays. If the muslims can get their holy days established as legal national holidays, then schools should take them off. Other than that, it’s a matter of population attending the school as well as the teachers teaching.
Why not allow the students X number of APH (All Purpose Holidays) that can be taken during the year – and those can be used by Catholic students as they wish, by Jewish students for the high holidays and by Muslims for whatever they want. And then offer the generic “winter” break and “spring” break to all – should it happen to coincide with some religious celebrations, just a coincidence folks.
Easy solution that can be implemented without major huffing and puffing.
Also, the number of “teacher” breaks needs to be severely limited. I have noticed of late that during really bad winter storms, some schools will remain open because they are mandated to have only so many closure days during a school year, which also includes closure days due to teachers whatever. Let the teachers have their conferences during the months when school is closed anyway, thus leaving more days available to be used, if necessary, due to inclement weather. We’re talking safety of students, here.
Gayle, I heard an interview with the man who has been trying to get the muslims holidays off. The school has no problem with the children taking the days off. He wants muslim holidays given recognition equal to Christian and Jewish holidays. Giving the children the days off is not his goal – recognition is.
The reason certain days are given off is that public schools are paid according to ADA (average daily attendance) If you have only 30% of children attending school on any particular day, you still have to pay 100% to the teachers. It makes sense to take a holiday if you don’t have the ADA to pay the overhead of the school.
As for the question of muslims compatibility with western culture…
I don’t think there’s a problem with muslims(individuals) – but there _is_ a problem with islam(the religion). As it stands today, I think islam is not compatible with the west. It may change, but it will take a long time, and with the present militancy, if we don’t draw a line and hold to it fast each and every time CAIR wants to step over it, we will be inundated.
Those who find that intolerant, google Malmo, Sweden.
The secular progressives have cleansed the public schools of any religious holidays. They took care of Thanksgiving by declaring that it has no religious connotation whatsoever. Winter and Spring break have absorbed of Christmas and Easter.
Furthermore, public schools must work doubly hard to avoid even the appearance of accomodation for the Christian religion in even the slightest way.
With this being the case, why should Islam be given religious holidays?
In my public high school career, we always made accomodations for students who stayed home due to religious observances. They were required to complete the missed work, but we took great pains to see that they were not penalized in any manner.
For many years our graduation ceremonies took place on Friday evening. We changed that to Thursday evening to accomodate the needs of our Jewish families.
The modern interpretation of the perceived “separation of church and state” has, in my opinion, been the catalyst for the growth in private schools and home schooling.
Every religion I have studied has those who are strong believers and those who merely pay lip service. This is true of Islam. When I fly Air Egypt, one or two stewards will hit the aisles to pray to Mecca while the rest of the crew steps over and around them just like the passengers. The same is true in the restaraunts and hotels throughout the Muslim world. It is not like the old days when all noses went down and all rumps came up in perfect unison.
If one is going to practice Islam from AtoZ he must be a fundamentalist and an enemy of all other religions. But most Muslims who have tasted the middle class and the freedoms of living apart from the religious police have long since stopped foaming at the mouth when a zealous imam goes on a tirade. In fact, they stay away from the nutcase imams all together.
The practical and good citizen Muslims in the US out number the nut cases ten to one or more. But they very well know to keep their mouths shut and hope this thing plays itself out without one of them being targeted and killed by the crazies among them.
If you’re an American citizen and you believe in supporting its Consitution and laws, then it’s not a question of compatability of a religion with the West but of the 1st Amendment, which forbids the government or agencies of the government, such as schools, from favoring a particular religion. Of course, we can argue whether Islam is compatible with Western culture, but we shouldn’t use incompatibility, if it exists, to excuse ourselves from considering this issue solely from the perspective of the Constitution and our laws. From that perspective to recognize Jewish and Christian holidays but not those of other religions is to “endorse” Jewish and Christian holidays, which should be considered “unlawful.”
#16 Pamela…I feel sorry for them too and by the way I misspoke. I didn’t mean the hijab in my post #15; I meant the niqab which is the one with only slits for eyes.
#23 I agree the moderates outnumber the radicals. They are apparently afraid to speak up and furthermore, we even shut them down ourselves as is the case with the documentary that PBS refuses to air. http://www.washtimes.com/national/20070411-123042-7035r.htm
I look forward to the day when in an effort to promote “diversity” and “tolerance” (translation: avoid lawsuits) public schools close 365 days out of the year. How else will they accommodate each and every complaint about “religious insensitivity”?
The benefit will be a country free of the corrosive effects of Stalinist lunacy posing as education.
A beautiful thought! But given the blatant hatred that secular progressives have for Christianity it is likely that we may have to put up with public schools open two days a year – Christmas and Easter. Of course the names for these two school days will need to pass PC muster. How about Winter Solstice and Evolution Day?
Snark aside, I agree with La Shawn that Islam is not compatible with the West (I think she means democracy when she says “the West”). But the welfare state fascism favored by the MSM, academia and the Democrat Party is also not compatible with democracy. Islam and the welfare state – two poisons that are being presented as the only choices open to us.
I’ve known several Muslims however don’t know if they are radical or peace loving. But it’s really hard to tell these days. We live in a time where we have to stand firm and hold on to our western values. Doesn’t it seem we are slowly moving away from the reasons we love this country? We have to be careful before we face east to pray and failure to pray daily will result in beheading.
Islam is not simply a religion, but a political system as well. A very intolerant political system, I might add. So no, Islamic holidays do not belong in our schools, anymore than does a holiday to celebrate Karl Marx’s birthday or the anniversary of the Russian Revolution. This is the most important thing that Westerners must understand about Islam: IT IS A POLITICAL SYSTEM, same as communism, fascism, liberal democracy, socialism, etc.
You will often hear Muslims talking about how Islm is a “complete way of life.” What do you think they mean when they say that? Their “complete way of life” means their political system as well as their religios beliefs. And for them to have THEIR “complete way of life,” it means that we Westerners DO NOT get to have OUR complete way of life. It means living under their rules for their “complete way of life.” Retail clerks at Target refusing to ring up packages of bacon and cabbies refusing to carry blind people with guide dogs — get it? That is only the beginning; their sharia is so totalitarian, it even has tons of rules on the proper way to go “potty.” I am not making this up.
I have been a student of sharia for many years and the mother of a convert. I know what I am talking about.
Mary I lived in a moderate muslim country, most of my friends were moderates, or so I thought. I was given the choice, either drop my gay friends/family members in the USA, or lose them. so much for the religion of tolerance. Then over 75% of my friends were muslim, I only have a few now.
Also I think it is funny that groups like the Audre Lorde Project, a gay and lesbian people of color group shows up at Free Palestine protests. Idiots they murder/execute gays in the muslim world. Racism abounds in the muslim world.
I’m not pro or anti gay, but all those “folks” out there bashing Christians, better beware, Islam murders you, Christians may talk with you, or say some stern words, at the most.
Islam is not compatible and immigration from such nations should be curtailed drastically.
I am a graduate of the Baltimore County Public School system. So maybe I know a little something extra about this.
What you might have noticed is that JEWISH and Christian holidays are observed there. Of course Christian holidays are observed everywhere, no big deal there. What you are seeing is a covert attack against JEWS. Baltimore County has a particularly large Jewish immigrant population, especially in the Pikesville area. Just about most of the entire state’s Jewish population is there. During the Communist Russia days, many Jews trying to escape were setup in Pikesville, MD. Many Holocaust survivors live there. I grew up there and it was not too unusual to see an old person walk into a store with numbers tattooed on their arm.
The Muslims are ticked that every school year they see those parent permission slips for Jewish holidays being passed out for parents. Basically if your kid is Jewish they can take off for the Jewish holidays with no penalty. Schools in the Pikesville area are open, but it’s like a day off, because the non-Jewish kids go those days to hang out and have a good time, because there are way too few students or teachers to actually have class, so everyone just has fun, play ball and watch movies all day! And hey, the school gym has heat and AC, so you might as well go to school to have fun instead of playing in the hot summer sun or cold of winter outside
.
The Muslims are trying to stick-it to the Jews with this action and that’s the bottom line. That’s why they are pressing this there and not somewhere else as vigorously.
There are not enough Muslims in any part of Baltimore County that if they all take the day off the school or even a class is non-functional, but with the Jewish Holidays, when the Jews take off entire schools are non-functional. What ya gonna do when literally over 90% of the school stays home?
“From that perspective to recognize Jewish and Christian holidays but not those of other religions is to “endorse†Jewish and Christian holidays, which should be considered “unlawful.â€
Comment by Charles”
I live in Baltimore now and have been following this story closely. From what I have read, the schools do not close for any religious reasons at all. It is purely due to attendance issues. Too many students would be out during Christmas and Easter to have school then, so they close. At one time, they didn’t close for the Jewish holidays, but when the population grew large enough that it also presented an attendance issue, then they closed for those holidays as well. There is only a small Muslim population, and it wouldn’t affect instruction or attendance at all if all the Muslim students were out for the two requested days, so it’s not now an issue. Any student can take off for a religious holiday and not be penalized. But cancelling all schools for (I’m guessing here) a few hundred, maybe a thousand, students doesn’t make sense.
Pamela, I’ve also always been confused as to why gays and people of color stand with the Muslims and protest Jews and Israel, but then again, there are so many liberal, misguided, secular Jewish kids out there doing the same darned thing. It breaks my heart. I don’t know what happened in their lives to make their brains so twisted and render them incapable of basic common sense and logic, or why they would turn on their people. Gentiles see this on the news and think “wow, even the Jews think Israel is bad” because most people have NO IDEA of how fractured and diverse the Jewish community is in general, and specifically with regard to Israel. A lot of it comes down to simple ignorance too, in that often secular Jews are just as clueless as everyone else about Israel but everyone expects them to know more (which is a legitimate expectation.) You have ultra religious Jews who oppose Israel because it is not a theocracy or because we didn’t wait for the messiah to come and give us Israel, and you have ultra liberal Jews who oppose Israel just because their socialist atheist friends do, and then you have what I’ll call the “regular Jews” who are ambivalent about Israel because they get their information from the PC media and don’t know any better, so they buy into this crap about how “both sides are responsible.” I’ve attended many pro Israel functions in America and while my husband and I are DEEPLY grateful for Christian friendship, it breaks our hearts to see that these events are attended more by Christians than by Jews!! It is a total disgrace for our community. We have a lot to learn from devout Christians.
Anyway, back to the topic; Islam is totally incompatible with the west. I don’t know what MORE they have to do to convince us of that! Kansas airport is installing footwashing basins in the bathrooms, for pete’s sake, for their Muslim taxi drivers (you know, the ones who will leave a blind person stranded because they don’t want the guide dog in the car?) We are killing ourselves and Israel (where I live) is almost as stupid as America when it comes to bending over backwards for Muslims whose primary goal is to take over the world and NEVER accomodate ANYONE else.
Part of the problem is that there are those who are blindly willing to accommodate Islam in every area of society under some misguided sense of equality, without even asking for the same in return.
If you look at the most fundamentalist Islamic nations, you can hardly raise your head if you are Christian or Jewish. If you look at the most fundamentalist Christian nation (arguably the U.S.), you can pretty much do anything you like and find a place to do it, untouched by death.
And the point here is not really to argue for reciprocity. The point here is that there are actual massive differences between religions, and one ought not to jump to the conclusion that all religions are equally benign in practice or result.
I actually believe that Christians, Jews, and Muslims serve the same God, but the truth gets distorted to varying degrees, in the same way that one can whisper a message in the ear of the first person, and by the time the fiftieth person gets the whispered message it has morphed away from the original intent. God as Constitution, with much illiteracy, plagiarism, denial, and lack of listening skills along the way.’
There is no Christian Al Queda, plotting to kill the King of Saudi Arabia, or blowing up people round the world on a daily basis. Any such comparisons between the most ardent believers of Islam and the followers of Christianity is absurd, and when people make the comparison it reveals a certain ignorance wrapped up in a coat of tolerance.
Yes, there are those of us who get vocal, and want America not to see boobies at the movies, but we fundamentally understand the idea that God gave man freewill, and that you cannot make someone love you. God is love, wants it from us, but does not want to bully us into giving that love. That is supposed to be the Christian model.
Also, there are those (in suggesting that Islam should be as acceptable as anything else) who make the case that the Old Testament is chock full of havoc and God commanding people to kill.
But anyone with a serious understanding of Christianity would know that Christ and his teachings are the primary guide for the Christian, with the Old Testament being more an object lesson in how the world would be if a pure God had to deal directly with sinful man. We don’t live by the (Old Testament)law, nor try to fulfill it- someone else has.
Islam offers no such relief. One could possibly argue that Judaism is as harsh as Islam, given the Tanakh, but at least they have spent hundreds of years explaining away (via the Talmud) how the law has to be adjusted for real life; the Talmud doing for Judaism what Jesus does for Old and New Testament Christianity.
I think before we start giving government stamps of approval we really have to know what we are approving, and too few people understand what we have here in our own religious culture, let alone the trojan dove coming from across the waters.
One wonders if Islam can have a kind of spiritual awakening, where all old things can become new. But if the rising influence of highly conservative Imams is that awakening, we will have hell to pay.
Finn, I often see people pointing up comparisons between the violence in the Tanakh and the violence in the Koran, but even if you set aside the Talmud’s “attempts to explain” as you put it, you will see on close examination that there is no comparison. In the Tanakh, Israelites were commanded to kill the inhabitants of their land in order that they could settle the land. They were ordered to kill the idol worshippers IN THE LAND. They were not ordered to go on crusades and kill idol worshippers in OTHER lands. Also, the groups that were targeted for war in the Tanakh are groups that no longer exist today, so it is all just history and not a prescription for a future way of life. Nowhere in halacha are we Jews commanded to kill non believers (as is the case in Islam with “infidels”). Nowhere. Nowhere in Tanakh are we commanded to seek out and kill a particular group of people who are in existence today, as is the case with the Koran and the Jews.
Furthermore, we Jews don’t really see our G-d as harsh and unforgiving. Rather, we are quite amazed that G-d was as tolerant and merciful with those stiff-necked people as He was! I still can’t understand the whole incident of the Golden Calf. I mean, gee, G-d Himself performs obvious wonders and miracles to you, and five minutes later, you are back to worshipping idols? Oy vey. If I were G-d, I’d have smacked them all down! That’s not being harsh.
Also, the Tanakh is only one piece of our holy literature; the Talmud is integral to our practice of Judaism and to our understanding of what G-d wants from us. You can’t separate them and make any sense of it. In the Tanakh, the death penalty was prescribed for infractions that seem minor to us now, yet in the Talmud, a Jewish court that put to death a single person in 70 years was deemed a “bloody Sanhedrin.”
Anyway, I truly hope that Christians will pause before comparing the “Old Testament” to the Koran in terms of brutality. More importantly, how do we Jews and Muslims live now? It’s been three thousand years since Jews waged an offensive war on anyone; for Muslims, it’s been, what? sixty seconds?
@31
Yea I was going to school there when they didn’t close. They just allowed the Jewish kids to take the day off. It was like a vacation for the rest of us, because there were not enough students or teachers to have regular classes. (I lived in Pikesville, which was known as the “Israel” side of Reisterstown road
.) I guess they finally wised up and closed the doors, because it really was a waste of money allowing just a few of us to come in to play ball and watch movies all day. But the school indoor basketball court with the break-away rims was so much nicer than playing outside 
. And the school TVs were pretty nice too.
Charles said:
“If you’re an American citizen and you believe in supporting its Consitution and laws, then it’s not a question of compatability of a religion with the West but of the 1st Amendment, which forbids the government or agencies of the government, such as schools, from favoring a particular religion.”
The pertinent text of the 1st amendment:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”
I interpret this to mean…. Congress (i.e., the Goverment) can’t make laws that dictate how churches are ran, and that anyone is free to practice whichever religion they please.
It doesn’t say one word about taking God out of our schools or ‘doing away’ with religous holidays. I agree with LaShawn. There are a majority of Christians and Jews who have established holidays that are observed by a larger population than those of Muslim, Satanism (or whatever it’s called) and the like so it makes sense to me that the schools would happen to be closed around Christian/Jewish holidays.
Betcha Charles is muslim. His comment is exactly the wording used by the man sueing to get the muslim holidays. Their philosophy doesn’t really address the issue as a local one with the federal/state government making no laws to interfere, it’s one of “you gave them one so you have to give me one too!” They will use our laws against us – we need to be very aware, toe the line and make _them_ toe the line. They have the freedom to practice their religion – they do _not_ have the right to demand accommodations for their practice.
Here’s an article on who’s “more equal” than whom…
http://drsanity.blogspot.com/2007/05/socialist-food-chain.html
‘Siyo Friends,
Islam is not compatible with Islam.
I Spread Lies And Misery = ISLAM.
Islam is as Islam does, kill the Infidel where ever you may find them, fore there is no compulsion in religion. HUH?
Pull your head out of the sand, is there a camel standing over you? You’re safe for the time being. Has anyone heard of the Barbary Coast Pirates? Remember, Jeffersons and new Americas first incounter with Islamic jihad.
Wado’ for allowing me this moment in time to share my two beads worth.
Life & Liberty
Bear
I have never once seen one of these “proponents of equality” arguing on behalf of Christians and other religious minorities in Muslim countries. Not that I really expect to. Until I do, you can cry me a river about how Muslims are so mistreated in western society.
Also, the seemingly paradoxical observation that gays, lesbians and most left wingers tend to support and defend Islam effectively boils down to this: The enemy of my (perceived) enemy is my friend.
I disagree with your assessment. Muslims are discriminated against in this country. So are Hindus. So are Buddhists, and Sikhs, and Jains. But all can freely worship. And rightly so.
The Hindus celebrate Diwali (Festival of Lights)
& Vaisakhi (solar new year), but those are not recognized on most U.S. calendar. And rightly so.
The Buddhists celebrate Buddha Day (his birthday) & Buddhist New Year (feb., march or april – depends), but those are not recognized on most U.S. calendar either. Same for the Jains, Sikhs and Muslims. And rightly so.
We all know the reason.
Whether the secular hummanists of the West want to admit it, the U.S. of A. is a Christian nation. For schools this is very significant because schools involve not only children, but parents and extended families. Holidays matter. But only certain holidays. That is why we discriminate or differentiate and establish what is important to us, as a nation.
And even though the secular humanists have attempted to water down the true meaning of some holidays; ie: ‘winter holiday’(the term of pagan religious orgin) is still Christmas – the birth of the Christ child. ‘Spring break’ (the term a reference to the pagan religious celebration of new birth & planting equinox) is still Pass Over / Easter Holy week. (Many Jewish holidays dovetail with Christian holidays, so they get a ‘coattail effect’.)
You are correct in stating that Muslim religious sensibilities (or lack thereof) are not compatible with Western thought, philosophy & culture. Sharia law is a brutal task master and would grant NO quater for any of the above mentioned religions. Religions that are welcome, tolerated and even protected in this Christian nation. Islam is not so generous.
Simply put, I agree that Islam is not compatible with the western world, and most assuredly not compatible with the United States Constitution. To say otherwise is to deny the basic tenets of Islam.
“Holidays matter. But only certain holidays. That is why we discriminate or differentiate and establish what is important to us, as a nation.”
So, you are saying, that the US has an official National religion (Christianity)?
So where’s the argument?
Regards,
JohnD
And wait until the infamous ACLU gets wind of this they will bring up one of their stupid lawsuits as they always do SCREW THE ACLU
“So, you are saying, that the US has an official National religion (Christianity)?”
Obviously not. It is grass roots in nature.
“So where’s the argument?”
My previous post.
Many of you would do well to actually meet a Muslim. There are certainly plenty of psychotic radicals, but I have known many Muslims who were perfectly Westernized. They aren’t hostile to the West at all, and many are quite fond of American culture.
Rick, I’m sure that’s true. At least I hope it is. It’s hard to tell, given the deafening silence of those westernized non-Sharia-type anti-radicals when the subject turns to the misogynistic caliphate-pushing anti-western death-to-America Islamofascists.
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