Posted on 03/28/2007 3:10:18 PM PDT by 3AngelaD
A majority of the Baltimore County public school system's calendar committee is in favor of closing schools on at least one of the most important Islamic holidays of the year, one member of the group said yesterday...
Brice Freeman, a schools spokesman who served as chairman of the calendar committee, said the group did not vote on specific recommendations but forwarded a list to Hairston of "outstanding issues" -- including the Islamic holiday -- raised by the panel of more than 20 members.
Yesterday, some members said it was not clear that the group had reached consensus on closing schools for Eid al-Fitr, which celebrates the end of Ramadan...
But Dr. Bash Pharoan, the Baltimore-area surgeon who has led the effort since 2004 to close schools for Islamic religious observances, issued an announcement yesterday morning that the group unanimously supported the change.
"The calendar committee members in their fourth and final meeting agreed unanimously that Islamic holidays should be treated equitably with the Jewish holidays as official school closing days for the secular reason of equity," Pharoan's announcement stated.
Another committee member, however, disputed Pharoan's statement.
"There wasn't a consensus," said Kevin Connelly, principal of Colgate Elementary...
In an interview later, Pharoan said he is hopeful that school officials will afford the Muslim community the same deference it has given to Jews and Christians.
"I believe this request is reasonable," said Pharoan...
During last night's school board meeting, Hairston said the announcement distributed by Pharoan was "inaccurate." "No recommendation has been forwarded to me," Hairston said.
If the school system decides to close for the Islamic observance, it would become the only district in Maryland.
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
Islamic holidays ? Blowupajewadan ?
Whatever happened to separation of church and state? Oh, wait a minute, that only applies to Christianity.
I just bet the ACLU will be all over this one...
/sarc
You liberals in Bawlmer are soooo lucky.
Dr. Pharoan came to Baltimore in 1975 to begin his surgery residency at Franklin Square Hospital and has been there ever since... He says, "We changed America and America changed us."
Just when you think there can't possibly be more reasons to homeschool, things like this happen.
Somebody help me out here. A school district can make any day on the calender a holiday, even a religious holy day. But they then should strip the holiday of any reference to religion. Isn't that the way it works?
I don't remember school being closed for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover, Hanukkah, or any Jewish holiday. ....and I grew up in a predominately Jewish 'hood.
On the radio, the school district spokesman pointed out that Christmas is a federal holiday.
Christmas? You mean "Winter Holiday?" :)
WTF?
We no longer have Christmas break -- It's now Winter Break.
We no longer have Easter break ----- It's called Spring Break.
We no longer have Thanksgiving break-It's now called Fall Break.
The bastards have attempted to remove all reference to Christian/Jewish/Etc religion -- but NOW we're going to consider RECOGNIZING the murderous Muslims with a school holiday?
This nation has gone insane...
Perhaps it's time for America to get it's head slapped around... It might wake up some of the dumb asses, if when they see heads rolling in the streets..
Semper Fi
Check your calendar Bash. All we have is Spring Break and Winter Intersemester Festival. No religious holidays here. Well, except for leftist heroes days and Earth Day and such. Thanks for playing; thank you come again.
Let me guess. September 11th?
Are you sick of it Americans? Apparently not. They won't spare you, you know? They like it here, they like weenie spined liberal Americans who will sell their souls in hopes Islamo nuts will spare them.
Why go home? The pickings are easy here. Liberalism has given them a victory in America, in Iraq, and right here.
GREAT! Don't forget Chinese New Year, Thai Water festival, Masai harvest celebration, and various other ethnic/cultural holidays.
Heck, lets make every country's independence day our holidays too.
You go for one, you are going to have to go for all. There will be five work days by the time we are done.
I am sick of it. I am sick to death of it. Islam screwed up their own countries so bad they had to leave, and now they're here trying to screw up ours. If they want to live like that, let them return home. At some point this has to be stopped.
I hope he realizes that "secular equity" means changing the name of the holiday from Christmas to Winter Break, Easter to Spring Break, etc.
How will the Muslims feel about their holidays becoming secularized, too?
-PJ
To get a feel for this Pharoan character, and his views on education, go to:
http://www.cftie.org/2006/12/index.html
for an eyeopener.
When I was in school, we had Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur off if they fell on a weekday.
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