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By Sara Elghobashy September 29, 2009 In January 2006, a statewide examination scheduled on Eid ul-Adha motivated more than eighty diverse community, faith, labor and civil rights groups to join forces to ensure that Muslim students in New York City no longer had to choose between attending school and celebrating Eid with their families. The groups, which together form the Coalition of Muslim School Holidays, are working tirelessly to convince a hesitant Mayor Bloomberg to adopt Resolution 1281, which would add Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha to New York City’s public school calendar. Although Mayor Bloomberg was adamantly opposed to the resolution at first, he has recently expressed that he is considering it. Bloomberg’s main concern seems to be that adding the Eid holidays to the public school calendar will lead to a flood of similar requests from other religious groups and thus, too many school days off. However, as Aliya Latif, Civil Rights Director of CAIR-NY, points out, that is not necessarily true. “There may be only a trickle given the rationale set forth by the coalition in our proposal to incorporate the two Eids as official holidays,” she says, adding, “The reasonableness of the request here is based on a culmination of factors, including the research done by NYU School of Law’s Immigration Rights Clinic regarding the minimal impact on the school calendar and that 1 out of 8 NYC public school students is Muslim.” Indeed, the two holidays would have minimal impact on the public school calendar. Research shows that in the coming years, the Eids will fall on other holidays, weekends, and during summer recess. This year, Eid fell on Sunday and the next one during Thanksgiving break. The Department of Education (DOE) sets the calendar in advance, so those arguing that they would have to inconveniently switch around their lesson plans throughout the year don’t really have much of an argument at all. In addition, the public school calendar is often flexible. For example, this year the DOE announced it would add a day to the school year so that schools could start after Labor Day. Districts in NJ and Michigan have already made similar accommodations to Muslim students and have yet to show any adverse effects. The numbers are important in this case as well. 95% of Muslim students attend public schools. And with 800,000 Muslims currently living in New York City, adopting Resolution 1281 would send a powerful message of inclusion for Muslim New Yorkers and would “illustrate the power of community organizing and growing political consciousness and maturity of the New York Muslim community,” says Latif. The coalition plans to continue its efforts in the hopes that Bloomberg will make the right decision to add the two Eids to the NYC public school calendars. “The process itself has been a real victory for civic engagement,” said Ms. Latif. “Diverse members of the community in New York came together to advocate for an American Muslim issue and regularly interacted with their local elected officials - some of them for the first time.” If the proposal is passed, it will no doubt be a monumental moment for the coalition and Muslim New Yorkers. http://www.elanthemag.com/index.php/site/featured_articles_detail/addition_of_eid_to_school_calendars_is_bloomberg_about_to_budge/