One of the largest school districts in Maryland voted unanimously (7-1) to remove ALL holiday names from their calenders after the Muslim community sought a form of recognition of a holy day (see. Eid al-Adha). Of course, the students will still receive their time off from school for the christian and Jewish holiday. This is not a new move as several districts throughout the country have already removed religious words associated with breaks(e.g. winter break).
It would be naive to say that there is not a percentage of the American population that holds a prejudice against Muslims given the misinformation and over-generalization by the media and government. With that being said there has been a major uproar in the Maryland community, specifically the christian sector, concerning how the religion of Islam is being forced down their throats and their own beliefs being squandered.
It is important to realize that the Muslims who were looking for recognition of their holiday did not have the overthrow of other religions on their agenda. It was the districts decision to remove the Christian and Jewish nomenclature as opposed to just granting the Muslims the same rights that the other two religious sectors already had. It would seem that this is not a case of religious rights,but more so the fear and intolerance from a small group of people.
Given that America was founded on the idea of having religious freedom it is logical that there should be an innate provision that all religions get some form of recognition. There is just one monkey wrench of course- the separation of church and state. Right of the bat it can be argued that there should NEVER have been any mention of a religious group within a schools jurisdiction.
It is safe to say that this argument and clash between the religions will not be settled easily or quickly. Everyone has their own set of paradigms when it comes to these issues which will generate a lot of debate and conflicting views. Whats yours?
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