(New York City:  Johannes Valkama)

One of the very first things that Bill de Blasio proposed as the new mayor of New York City was to recognize a couple of Muslim holidays.

So under his plan city workers and the New York school teachers and students will have the Muslim holy days of Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Adha off regardless of their own personal religion to the cost of millions to the city coffers. Here’s a link to an article by a Muslim lawyer questioning whether it is even Constitutional.

Response: I am a supporter of the freedom of all religions in America. I believe that it would be far better and more consistent to accommodate the religious holidays of all city workers, teachers, and students regardless of religion rather than making two Muslim holy days ‘official’ city holidays where everyone takes them off with pay. In effect this really does take the Muslim religion to another ‘official’ level in New York City.

Currently all across America the ACLU and the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) and others are suing local governments over the celebration of traditional religious holidays like Christmas (now called Winter break) and Easter (now referred to as Spring break) even though Christmas itself continues to be an official Federal holiday. Where is the ACLU and groups like the FFRF with this development? After all, the recognition of these two holidays will elevate Islam above some other major religions in the city with nearly as many adherents, like Hinduism.

To be consistent I would expect that they would challenge the Constitutionality of any newly recognized religious holidays since elevating the two Muslim holidays to a new ‘official’ level would end up costing the NY City government and the school system millions in time and money. However, I will not be holding my breath since those groups seem to be more intent upon restricting Christianity in America and undoubtedly want to avoid the charge of ‘Islamophobia’ if at all possible.              *Top