New York to vote on Idul Fitri holiday

The Jakarta Post | Mon, 09/29/2008 7:26 PM | Life

The New York City Council will vote Oct. 16 whether to grant a request for additional school holidays to celebrate two of the most sacred dates for Muslims, Idul Fitri and Idul Adha.

The request has been proposed and supported by Muslims living in the Big Apple, including those of Indonesian descent.

"The proposal, which was drafted by a council member from Harlem, Robert Jackson, has received support from eight other council members. That means our endeavor to get at least seven for the proposal to be considered has been fulfilled," said one of the most prominent Muslim figures in New York, Syamsi Ali, as quoted by Antara news agency Sunday.

Jackson is a Muslim and he leads the education department at the council.

"The voting will be carried out at the committee level first and then the plenary level," said Ali, an Indonesian who has been active in pressuring public schools to acknowledge the Muslim holidays.

He was part of a group of people summoned by education committee members Saturday to testify and address the members on the issue. Other people summoned by the council included three local Muslim Imams, students and Christian and Jewish religious leaders.

"It was so moving to see other religious leaders supportive of our request," Ali said.

The struggle to get the council members to acknowledge the holidays began in 2005, he said.

"At that time, we were celebrating Idul Adha, but the city was having school exams at the same time. That means kids that should have gone for Idul Adha prayer, had to go to school," he said.

The incident then grew into a much bigger issue, prompting 300 people to rally in front of the city council. About 70 percent of the protesters were non-Muslims.

The rally held a press conference, Ali said, demanding that there should not be any exams on the Muslim holidays. The demand was granted by the council, which later issued a resolution on

it.

And now, the same New York citizens are fighting for the city to acknowledge the holidays as school holidays. Of seven million people living in New York today, at least one million are

Muslims.

Ali said that he was optimistic that the council would grant the request as support was abundant, mostly from non-Muslims. (and)

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