Muslim Americans welcome first NY Eid school holiday

New York marks a milestone in the fight for equality when 1.1 million children in America's largest school district will take the day off to mark Eid al-Adha.
It is a small but hard-won victory at a time when American Muslims complain of growing Islamophobia and worsening anti-Muslim rhetoric following the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
For the first time, more than 1,800 public schools in New York will close for the Muslim feast of sacrifice, a day after also closing for Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled the new policy in March, announcing that New York public schools would get two days off for Eid al-Fitr, which falls during the summer, and Eid al-Adha, in addition to major Christian and Jewish holidays.

Since then, city hall has added a further day off -- February 8, 2016 -- for Lunar New Year, celebrated by Asian-Americans.
"It is a huge victory to actually see the day come," says Linda Sarsour, a member of the Coalition for Muslim School Holidays and a New York activist with three children.

"As an imam as well as a parent I am very happy," agreed Imam Shamsi Ali, director of the Jamaica Muslim Center in Queens.
"I'm sure this kind of policy from the government side will push Muslims further to feel a sense of belonging," he said.
Muslim New York parents previously faced a quandary: keep their children at home to observe the holiday and skip class, or send them to school and let celebrations fall by the wayside.

There are an estimated seven to 10 million Muslims in America, of whom a million are believed to live in New York -- about 10 per cent of the city's population.
New York follows at least seven other school districts that close for Eid in New Jersey, Massachusetts and Vermont, but activists are still campaigning in other parts of the country.
Activists hope that embracing Eid in the school calendar will make Islam more mainstream and counter Islamophobia.
"It's a very tense time," Sarsour told AFP. "No one can talk about Islam without talking about terrorism."
In the last two weeks alone, a Sikh American was so viciously beaten in Chicago and called a "terrorist" because of his dark skin, beard and turban that he wound up in the hospital.

In Detroit, a mosque was refused planning permission and in Texas, a 14-year-old Muslim teenager who is the son of Sudanese immigrants was arrested for building a clock that teachers thought was a bomb.