Reply to What does "equity" look like for the calendar?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Again.  People move here and/or convert knowing that the society is not constructed around their minority faith.[/quote]

I keep seeing this argument on these calendar threads. Maybe it's you every time? Either way, it's a little bizarre and seems to imply that all minority faith families are foreigners who moved here from somewhere else? I'm not sure that's what you meant to imply; at least I certainly hope not. Many minority faith houses of worship have been in Fairfax for generations, and their members are not all new to the area. Regardless, the county has changed. I suppose by your logic, if recognizing this growing diversity bothers you, you could choose to move somewhere where they don't, but there's no guarantee that place won't change too.[/quote]

Super sensitive.

Minority faiths have indeed been here for generations (actually centuries but that's a different topic).  Every decade there are more houses of worship (we used to have none) supporting the religious needs.  Speaking of muslims specifically Off the top of my head there is ADAMs center in Sterling and Dar Al Hijrah in Falls Church.  They themselves are quite different and anyone who knows anything about it knows that they aren't the same and some muslims would rather not go at all than to one or the other. There's the Halalco, Madinah market, etc. etc.  In every case the population that started to grow here in the 80s were mostly immigrant, and they knew very well that America and Fairfax County were not majority muslim, but that they and their children could attend school, marry, work, start their own businesses and get permits to build masjids.

They got their holidays off and took their kids off for holidays.  As the community grew in this area they were able to put on larger gatherings for 'Eid and even festivals for the kids. (Attended by immigrant muslims, their children, and converts).  There are some masjids very close to churches and they sometimes have agreements to allow the other to use their parking lots for overflow when they have large events. (It's very convenient for all that Juma is on Friday and most churches hold their large gatherings on Sunday)

Let's not pretend that everyone is running around scared of diversity.  When it makes operational sense change the calendar. If you can't wait for that day, pull your kids out.  No one currently enrolled in public school is going to do that because they LIKE the system.  Get over it.

To do otherwise is discrimination.  There are more than Christians, Hindus, Jews and Muslims in this county you know.  If the new policy is to construct the calendar around religious holidays as a mere matter of embracing diversity, get ready for

Jain
Zoroastrian
Wiccan (of every type)
Various Pagans
ATR (do you even know what that is lol)
and others that I haven't listed

to demand their holidays off as well. They would be entitled to do so and I will stand with them. Don't tell them that they can't have it because there are too few of them.[/quote]

there are 'churches' that exist to challenge local governments (particularly school boards) over religious discrimination. Once the school board starts explicitly handing out religious holidays, they've already lost. The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has designated 365 religious holidays a year- good luck to a teacher who wants to assign any work in a school system that has explicitly stated that religious holidays will be honored [/quote]

I don't think we should let an group of edgelord trolls ruin things for everyone else. There's a difference between someone wanting to take a high holy day off and someone being a dick and inventing holidays purely to complain that kids don't have to take a test on Rosh Hashanah or Good Friday. [/quote]

they exist to litigate separation of church and state issues. If the school recognizes one religion's high holy days, what is the justification for not recognizing another's? [/quote]

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