MARYLAND SCHOOL District scraps religious names on calendar

Associated Press

Presented with the opportunity to recognize a Muslim holiday on the school calendar for the first time, leaders of Maryland’s largest school district went a different direction: They removed all mention of religious holidays from the calendar.

Many school districts nationwide don’t spell out religious holidays on the calendar, having replaced “Christmas Break” with the secular “Winter Break.” But school officials in Montgomery County, Md., a wealthy and diverse Washington suburb, are being criticized for the impetus behind their decision: a push by Muslims to close schools on Eid holy days.

Muslim activists had asked the board to note on next year’s calendar that Yom Kippur, a day when schools already are closed, is also Eid al-Adha. The two holidays do not always fall on the same date. But the board rejected that proposal, instead voting 7-1 to close schools on the same days as usual without mentioning their religious associations.

As a result, Christians and Jews are upset at the removal of their holidays from the calendar, and Muslims are upset that theirs weren’t included. Conservative bloggers seized on the decision as part of a perceived “war on Christmas” by secular forces. And Muslims accused the board of hiding behind secularism to protect more- established communities.

“It was a no-win situation for us,” school board chairman Phil Kaufman said.

Still, Kaufman believes the decision was fair and that some of the furor over it was misplaced. Schools, after all, will remain closed on Christmas and the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. But Zainab Chaudry of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a co-chairwoman of the “Equality for Eid” campaign, sees a more-sinister motive.

“It shows they would go to any lengths, they would take drastic measures to deny the Muslim community the right to have the Eid holiday on the school calendar,” she said.

Schools Superintendent Joshua Starr declined to comment Wednesday. He had recommended that the board eliminate mention of only the Jewish holidays because schools are closed on those days at the county’s discretion, while the state requires that schools be closed on Christmas. Board members rejected that suggestion, deciding that it would be more equitable to remove mention of Christian holidays as well.