Religious Holidays in Public Schools

[Manul]

Originally Posted by Manul

If we are to be truly American, shouldn't we include Muslim Americans and their holidays?

Originally Posted by Toughy

I could ask the same question about Jewish holidays and Hindu days and Buddhist and Pagan (although many are really close to Christian days cuz the Christians ripped them off from us Pagans) and any other religion practiced by any American.

Why is Islam any different than any of the above?



I'm not so sure the Constitution says religion cannot be taught in public schools. The 'religion' part of the 1st Amendment is about establishing a government sanctioned religion and giving the people the right to freely exercise their own religion. (Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.)

There is a line at the end of Article 6 that says there shall be No religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States. Several states actually do have a religious test even though it is clearly prohibited in the Constitution.

I absolutely agree with you in your sentiment expressed why is Islam any different from the above list you posted. It would seem to me the establishment of Muslim school holidays would certainly open precedence for other religions to claim their due holidays.

My personal belief is the government has already sanctioned religion in the schools because Christmas is a school holiday whether it's called Christmas or Winter break.

http://www.senate.gov/reference/reso...l_Holidays.pdf

I'll refer you back to this:

I find it odd that in the evolution and application of federal holidays which many schools also use as a basis for their holidays there is no explanation as to why Christmas is a federal holiday as opposed to explanations for other holidays such as Thanksgiving, Columbus Day and the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. Is it just understood or arrogance?