Montgomery County Board of Education voted Tuesday to remove religious labels off school holidays. But members of the Islamic community say the adjustments to the school calendar do nothing to gain parity and a day off for the Muslim holiday of Eid.

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ROCKVILLE, Md. — Montgomery County Public Schools will remove religious

labels

from school holidays, but members of the Islamic community say the adjustments

to

the school calendar do nothing to gain parity and a day off for the Muslim

holiday of Eid.

The school board approved the school calendar for the 2015-2016 school year

Tuesday. The calendar will no longer reference specific religious holidays but

rather state simply that school will be closed on dates that correspond with

holidays, such as Eid, Yom Kippur and Christmas.

Saqib Ali, a former Maryland state delegate and co-chair of Equality for Eid,

was

not happy with the board of education’s action Tuesday.

“Equality is really what we’re looking for,” Ali said. “Simply saying we’re

not

going to call this Christmas, and we’re not going to call this Yom Kippur, and

still closing the schools, that’s not equality.”

School board members said they were sympathetic to the desire to have Eid

recognized and close schools but that legal precedent in Maryland bars them

from

closing for religious purposes.

“We can’t close for religious holidays. We can only close for operational

purposes,” like high absenteeism, school spokesman Dana Tofig said.

That explanation doesn’t sit well with Zainab Chaudry, with the Council on

American Islamic Relations.

“What’s really concerning to us is that similar

conditions weren’t placed on any other faith community,” Chaudry says.

In the 1970s school officials decided to close on Jewish holidays because of

high absenteeism.

But school board member Michael Durso said that the schools effectively close

for

a religious reason: the schools had high absenteeism because of a religious

holiday in the community.

Noting the attempt to move away from favoring religions by instead referring

to

school days off as “winter break” and “student holidays,” Durso said as long

as

the Islamic community’s concern for parity wasn’t somehow addressed “it comes

off

as insensitive, and I just think we cannot afford to be in that light”.

That drew applause from parents who filled the seats in the board of

education’s

meeting room.

The adoption of the 2015-2016 school calendar does give students the day off

on

Eid but only because it happens to fall on another school holiday, Yom Kippur.

Several school board members, Chris Barclay, Judy Docca and Michael Durso,

made it

clear that they want to see a permanent policy change but that discussion

would

continue.

Board member Judy Docca acknowledged Tuesday’s action does little to satisfy a

community that’s been waiting for years to see a change.

“We’re kicking the can

down the road,” Docca said.

But Docca said until the board can find a legal way around the issue, the

waiting

would continue.

Muslim parents say their children get a clear message from the Montgomery

County

school system that they are second-class citizens.

That’s how Abdul Shaikh sees it. He has two kids in Montgomery County Schools

and

said it’s painful to explain to his American-born kids that public schools

choose

a holiday policy that gives off for Christmas and Yom Kippur, but not Eid.

“How am I supposed to explain it to them?” Shaikh said.

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WTOP’s Kate Ryan contributed to this report. Follow @kateryanWTOP and @WTOP on Twitter.