PHILADELPHIA – Philadelphia School District has decided to recognize two Muslim holidays in its calendar for the coming year, the move welcomed by jubilant Muslims.
“Philadelphia’s history is based on being a place where religious freedom is part of its founding ethos,” Mayor Kenney said at a news conference in City Hall, where he was joined by Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. to announce the new holidays, Philly.com reported on Wednesday, June 1.
“Our city was built on the idea that while we may be different in nationality and ethnicity, the city welcomes all to worship and practice the faiths of our culture or our choosing.”
Kenney added he also hopes to adopt the holidays for city workers, creating a task force to determine how the change can be accomplished.
Muslims celebrate two feasts each year.
`Eid Al-Adha, or “Feast of Sacrifice”, is one of the two most important Islamic celebrations, together with `Eid Al-Fitr.
A spokesman from the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington said his group is not aware of any cities that have included the holidays, `Eid al-Fitr and `Eid al-Adha, in their municipal calendars.
Calls for Philadelphia, which has an estimated 200,000 Muslims, to adopt the holidays have grown over the last year.
In January, City Council unanimously passed a resolution introduced by Councilman Curtis Jones Jr., who is Muslim, backing the change.
Philadelphia city workers currently have 11 paid holidays, two of them religious: Christmas and Good Friday.
The School District also recognizes Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
Hope
The decision was welcomed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations as significant, referring to its timing.
“These are like rays of light in the darkness,” Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR spokesman in Washington, noting a rise in anti-Muslim sentiments fueled in part by the comments of presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Salima Suswell, a member of the Philadelphia Eid Coalition, on Tuesday said the district’s decision will “validate our young Muslim students.”
“It will allow them to know that they matter, their faith matters, and that there is a place in society for them,” she said. “And never again will they have to choose between education and religion.”
Elsewhere across the United States, home to a Muslim minority between 6-8 million, recognizing Muslim religious holidays is gaining ground.
In Boston, leading schools Cambridge Public School District issued a decision in 2010 to recognize `Eid Al-Fitr and `Eid Al-Adha, which marks the end of hajj.
Several cities in New Jersey close schools on Muslim holidays.
Dearborn, Michigan, where nearly half of the 18,000 students are Muslims, is believed to be the first city to close school on Muslim festivals.
In September 2010, public schools in Burlington city, Vermont, also closed on `Eid al-Fitr for the first time.
CAIR offers a booklet, called “An Educator’s Guide to Islamic Religious Practices,” designed to help school officials provide a positive learning environment for Muslim students.