Florida School does away with religious holidays after Muslim group

[B Calm]

ask that they have one holiday of their own.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47063

[sam sarrha]

1. at last Religion free education.. what a concept..!!!

[wakeme2008]

2. this has been overturn and the holidays are back

The Muslim group dropped their request for their own holiday

[RC]

3. Why are Christians so afraid of other religions?

It's the same god in most cases.

[fasttense]

4. The Wold Net's reporting is really biased.

"Several individuals connected to the Council on American-Islamic Relations have been indicted on terrorism-related charges. In addition, CAIR's chairman of the board, Omar Ahmad, was cited by a California newspaper in 1998 declaring the Quran should be America's highest authority. He also was reported to have said Islam is not in America to be equal to any other religion but to be dominant."

They throw in the above paragraph after they have quoted Ahmed Bedier, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. What exactly is several people? 1, 2 ? They were indicted, now last I looked, almost any Muslim who says anything is indicted in this country (look at the fuss over Cat Stevens for pity sake.). And what happened to innocent until proven guilty? Then they throw in this crap about what Omar had to say. Omar was Not the person being quoted. Why bring it up? Then they go back Seven years to find what he had to say about his religion. Now if a Wacko wing-nut Christian said "the Bible should be America's highest authority, and Christianity is not in America to be equal to any other religion but to be (is) dominant." Would they even bother reporting it?

I just find this article to be very bias, not to mention sad. Just cause these folks wanted a religious holiday like all the Christians the school board acted like a bunch of little kids, taking away then returning the religious holidays. This is all very sad.

[ck4829]

5. Many wing-nut Christians have said just that

Howard Ahmanson - "My purpose is total integration of biblical law into our lives."

John Ashcroft - "America has no King but Jesus."

Pat Robertson - "It is interesting, that termites don't build things, and the great builders of our nation almost to a man have been Christians, because Christians have the desire to build something. He is motivated by love of man and God, so he builds. The people who have come into (our) institutions (today) are primarily termites. They are into destroying institutions that have been built by Christians, whether it is universities, governments, our own traditions, that we have.... The termites are in charge now, and that is not the way it ought to
be, and the time has arrived for a godly fumigation."

Pat Robertson - "When I said during my presidential bid that I would only bring Christians and Jews into the government, I hit a firestorm. `What do you mean?' the media challenged me. `You're not going to bring atheists into the government? How dare you maintain that those who believe in the Judeo Christian values are better qualified to govern America than Hindus and Muslims?' My simple answer is, `Yes, they are.'"

RJ Rushdoony - He has advocated that Christian fundamentalists take "dominion" over the U.S.; abolish democracy, which he calls a "heresy;" and establish a theocratic state. According to Christianity Today magazine, Rushdoony also believes that under such a state, "True to the letter of Old Testament law, homosexuals... adulterers, blasphemers, astro-logers, and other will be executed."

[DanCa]

8. My ex friend kevin said that there should only be one religion

And those opposing it should be shot. Honest he said it. This is a guy who used drugs cheatted on his wife stole cable and got fired from a job for stealling money. The only reason we were friends is because he's my next door neighbor. This all came out during last election.

[shenmue]

6. Very disheartening

I live right near there and it made me sick to hear the baldly racist sentiments of the fundamentalist segment of the crowd. They were saying such flatly bigoted and Christian-supremacist things about Muslims, Jewish people and so forth that I wanted to punch through the radio. One man said he was there to proclaim the supremacy of Jesus Christ, claimed "that's what this country had been founded for" and all our problems were from "getting away from that," that sort of stuff. Others were saying only Christian holidays ought to be observed since the U.S. is 'majority Christian' and 'was founded by Christians' (debatable). Ugly, ugly sentiments and a decision that, to me, reeks of being unconstitutional. I hope they fight it in court, although this being Jeb Bush land, I don't know how far they're going to get.

Some in the crowd stood up to say that any religion deserved to have its observers use the same practices as Christians. I was glad to hear them do that, though it's getting hard to stand up for tolerance and civil liberties these days.

[teach1st]

7. The St. Petersburg Times today...

..has a good editorial and LTEs addressing the matter:

St. Pete Times editorial

If ever there was a teachable moment, this was it. The board should have explained that using the school calendar to sanction some religious holidays but not others is a form of discrimination. Families already can keep their child home from school, without penalty, on the days at issue. It also was time for plain talk. The Monday after Easter has no religious significance; it is a travel day. And pastors and churchgoers who invoked the name of God to threaten the board with a cultural "battle" should be kept as far away from school policymaking as possible.

St. Pete Times LTEs

My thanks go to School Board member Doretha Edgecomb for having the courage to maintain the right and proper position on the subject of religious holidays appearing on the school calendar.

Her truly constitutional stand while facing some of our local fanatics and their moralistic, hypocritical threats revealed much of her character and warrant continued support. Sadly, the same cannot be said of most of her board co-members.

There is no worthy reason to continue these school holidays. Truly, we are not a "Judeo-Christian" nation, nor do we wish our government to represent us as such.

The Tuesday night reversal can only be viewed as bowing to religious minorities and caving in to their questionable political pressure to maintain the status quo. Sadly, these are not principles that will benefit our schools or the children in them.

[B Calm]

9. Great editorials..