Holiday Equality for All

When AWAAM's youth organizers decided three years ago that they wanted to make Muslim holidays official school holidays, I was thrilled. We joined the Muslim School Holidays Coalition, where we work to put the two major Muslim holidays on the New York City public school calendar. Earlier this month, we won a little victory; New York City Council passed Resolution 1281 with a vote of 50 to 1.

Early in my childhood, the Muslim holidays were just days when we would make pounds and pounds of kahk -- date or honey stuffed cookies sprinkled with powdered sugar. But the real holiday -- the one that we all were waiting for -- was Christmas. We would pull out the old tree and decorate it with tinsel and such. We would wrap and place the presents under the tree until the big day. We even had stockings, which we would stuff with candy. And then of course, there was turkey -- a full turkey dinner.

But why is a Muslim family celebrating Christmas? Well, you have to admit -- come the end of the year, Christmas is everywhere in this culture: in ads, in stores, at school, on people's front lawns. In practice, many people focus on its secular and commercial rather than religious aspects.

I was one of those kids who usually went to school even on days when my parents said I didn't have to. After all, it was I who would be making up for the work that I had missed for days or weeks after. And it was I who would have to explain to my teachers that I was taking a religious holiday and that was, by law, an excused absence. Knowing my teachers and knowing my siblings' teachers, I didn't trust that they would respect my family's religion. Some of them were the type that educated their naïve students about the various names that one could call an Arab; to my brother, these lessons came in the form of broken fingers, teeth and noses. And then there were the multicultural types like my fifth grade honors teacher, who repeatedly asked me to come to class with a bucket and a rug so that the rest of the students could watch me wash up and pray. Explaining my absence to my teachers was not something that I wanted to do.

It wasn't until after my graduation from high school that I began to protest our attachment to Christmas. I stopped buying presents because I thought it a shame that we bought into the commercialism while neglecting our own very important traditions. After a few years, the rest of the family caught on and we transfered our holiday zeal from Christmas to the Muslim holidays, Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha, or as we call them in Arabic, the Little Eid and the Big Eid. For the Little Eid, we kept the turkey. For the Big one, an old tradition came back: slaughtering a sheep in the yard in honor of Ibrahim's sacrifice. But we had to switch it to the basement since the neighbors complained. To this day, our home is a gathering place for friends and neighbors on those two days. For me, it's a big treat, but my new sister-in-law brought it into perspective for me recently when she said, "You only celebrate for one day?" Back home in Egypt, her family celebrates the Little Eid for three days and the Big Eid for four.

Times have changed, and even the New York City Council recognizes the legitimacy and value of allowing Muslim students to observe their traditional holidays. Great, so....Muslim holidays for all NYC public school students? Not quite yet. With Mayoral control of our schools, we still have to get the Mayor's approval.

Right after the vote, Bloomberg was quoted in the New York Times saying, "If you close the schools for every single holiday, there won't be any school." Since then we've heard some less oppositional but not quite supportive statements from him. In any case, if the Mayor chooses not to represent one in eight of NYC's public school students, there's always the state. Senator Perkins and Assemblyman Benjamin recently put forward a bill that would require New York City to recognize Muslim holidays in its schools. However, it could take years of work on the part of organizers, advocates and our public officials before state legislation is passed.

One way or another, it looks like Muslim holidays are going to be a reality in NYC public schools. It's great to think that one day my kids can celebrate our holidays in ways that I couldn't.

Hey, maybe they'll even be able to go to a school where they can become fully bilingual, just like Chinese, Spanish and Russian speaking kids in this city. More about New York's Arabic language dual language public school here. I've got my hopes up; maybe the city will be a better place for all of its students someday.

What you can do to help: Tell the Mayor to support Muslim holidays in public schools.