Public school officials in Tampa are poised to remove religious holidays from the official school calendar altogether rather than honor a request from local Muslims to add an Eid-themed holiday, reports the St. Pete Times.
In the interest of church-state separation, school board members want to eliminate vacation days coinciding with Yom Kippur, Good Friday and Easter Monday and replace them with time off on Presidents Day and later in the spring.
But board member Jennifer Faliero, who believes the secular calendar "waters down our values" by suppressing religious expression, has offered up an alternative. Hers would give students a day off for the Eid al-Fitr instead of the Monday after Easter. Faliero also wants the holidays called what they are instead of the current term "nonstudent days."
Debate over the holidays started when local Muslims asked for a holiday like everyone else. They said removal of all religious holidays was the last thing they wanted. "This is not what we asked for," said Ahmed Bedier, Florida director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "We were simply asking for equal representation."
