EID-UL-FITR Holiday: Montgomery County Respecting The Muslim Holy Month.

There will be three religious holidays for which Montgomery County Public Schools will cancel classes this year: Rosh Hashanah, Christmas and Easter. Yom Kippur, which many MCPS students celebrated this week, began a half hour before sundown on Friday, thus forcing the rescheduling of several athletic and after-school events.

Yom Kippur calls for, among other things, a 12-hour fast to end on the following night. Jews believe it is a day of atonement for sin. When it falls on a school day, it is also a holiday for which MCPS will cancel classes.

But some community members are asking MCPS to recognize a similar religious holiday practiced by Muslims, though it’s perhaps lesser known. It is Eid ul-Fitr, the end of the month-long period of fasting called Ramadan, which this year began at sunset on Sept. 12 and will continue until sunset on Oct 12.

During Ramadan, Muslims cannot have food during the daytime, so most wake up before dawn to eat and pray. Eid ul-Fitr, or Eid, is the celebration the day after Ramadan ends, commemorated by food, prayer and time at home with family.

“I know there is a large percentage of Muslims in school, and I know for a fact a lot of Muslims, especially kids who take AP classes, don’t want to miss class,” said Harris Akhtar, a senior at Seneca Valley High School who is Muslim. “At the same time they have this obligation to celebrate this day.”

On Thursday, Akhtar and other members of the Muslim community, dressed in traditional Kufi (headwear) and Shalwar-Kameez (shirts), came to Quince Orchard High School for the first of two MCPS community forums this year to explain to the County Board of Education members what an important day Eid was for them.

“First of all not a lot of people know what Eid ul-Fitr is,” Akhtar said. “Students know all about Jewish and Christian holidays, so if we get Eid off people will first be like, ‘Woo-hoo!’ But then they’ll ask what the holiday is for.”

Kate Harrison, a spokeswoman for MCPS, said that technically the County did not recognize religious holidays by canceling school for them.

“School is cancelled in recognition that there is a high rate of absenteeism among students and staff around a particular holiday,” Harrison wrote via e-mail. “For example, Montgomery County Public Schools does not have school on Yom Kippur because so many staff members and students would be observing the holiday and thus be absent from school – in numbers that it would be difficult to carry on school operations … The reason is not to observe the religious holiday.”

But along those lines, Harrison said school systems could cancel class for many reasons if they wanted to.

“Sometimes school systems in Maryland cancel a school day for other occasions that result in high absenteeism,” Harrison wrote. “For example, Alleghany County extends the Thanksgiving holiday through Monday, November 26, to include the start of deer hunting season due to high absenteeism.”

Board member Christopher S. Barclay said he didn’t feel comfortable commenting on Eid or requests to make it a school day off without further researching the matter.

“I don’t think I can really have a comment on the issue,” Barclay said. “I understand the issue on the surface but I can’t say, ‘Here’s why I think this.’ I think that’s why you didn’t see many Board members comment on it [on Thursday].”

Barclay added: “There are a lot of cultures in our school system, and we have to come up to speed and learn those religious practices. But I don’t think its fair for us to make a comment on something like this.”

Akhtar said school is stressful enough without having to fast for a month, and then miss class for religious purposes.

“A lot of kids begin the year and go straight into Ramadan,” Akhtar said. “The beginning of school is always the most stressful time, and now you’re not eating on top of it. It’s really tough.”

***THE SENTINEL

ISLAM: Ramadan Meal For Everyone, Peace On Us All.

An Islamic humanitarian group held a nationwide campaign this weekend to assist tens of thousands of homeless people.

The effort to serve at least 25,000 homeless in as many as 19 major cities was carried out by the nonprofit group Islamic Relief-USA based in Buena Park, California.

The group’s Humanitarian Day, which was observed on both Saturday and Sunday this year, brought Muslim volunteers into the streets to provide food, clothing, and medicines to America’s poorest, even as the volunteers themselves continued to fast in observation of the holy month of Ramadan.

This is the third consecutive year that Islamic Relief activists have organized humanitarian efforts during Ramadan. Last year, while fasting during the daytime, the volunteers reached out to an estimated 18,000 people in a number of cities.

As they did in 2006, this month, many activists are taking essentials to the homeless in local neighborhoods, such as a warm meal or gift package including hygiene and emergency kits, bath towels, clothing, blankets, ponchos, and toys for children.

With some help from government entities and religious organizations, they are also providing free HIV/AIDS screenings, flu vaccinations, educational materials, and referral information to those in dire need of such assistance.

Last year the organization worked with more than 100 partners to organize volunteer efforts across the country, according to Clareen Menzies, Islamic Relief’s domestic projects manager.

“It was something I will probably carry for the rest of my life,” said one of the group’s first-time volunteers. “Physically helping people less fortunate than I am was something different from giving zakah (mandatory almsgiving for Muslims).”

According to a Census Bureau report released last month, nationwide, more than 36 million people — or nearly 13 percent of the total U.S. population — lived in poverty in 2006.

Among those officially considered “poor,” over one third are children, most of them nonwhite minorities such as African Americans, Latinos, and Asians.

The data reveals continued inequality and concentration of wealth in the United States, with the top 20 percent of households receiving over 50 percent of the nation’s income, while the lowest 20 percent got just over 3 percent.

According to the data, more than 8 percent of non-Hispanic whites, about 10 percent of Asians, over 20 percent of Hispanics, and some 24 percent of African Americans are “poor.”

Recent studies point out that more than 23 million Americans need to look for emergency food assistance every year, about 13 million of whom are children whose parents do not earn enough to pay for food, rent, heat, health care, and transportation.

Reacting to the Census Bureau’s findings last month, many antipoverty groups reiterated their demand for a raise in the minimum wage and called for congressional action to make the minimum wage “a true living wage.”

“Reducing poverty is not rocket science,” said Roberta Spivek of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization involved in numerous campaigns for economic and social rights.

“We can go a long way by investing in education, health care, job training, and housing,” she added in a statement that also raised critical questions about Washington’s continuation of the war in Iraq, which, according to the group’s calculations, is costing U.S. taxpayers over $700 million every day.

By contrast, Islamic Relief’s Ramadan efforts appeared driven more by moral and religious concerns than by larger political motives.

“My main goal wasn’t to hand out shirts or supplies,” the first-time volunteer said of her experience helping the homeless. “It was just to bring a smile to their faces and bring a little hope to their lives. The people were so polite, thankful, and humorous that I couldn’t help but smile to myself.”

This year’s Islamic Relief activities served communities in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Boston; Chicago; Dallas; Detroit; Elizabeth, New Jersey; Fort Thompson, South Dakota; Houston; Kalamazoo, Michigan; Las Vegas; Minneapolis; New Orleans; New York; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Seattle; and Washington, DC.

***ONE WORLD U.S.A

Sierra Leone: Open To All Tourists And Well Wishers

rs later, long stretches of sandy beach are still mostly bare, and government officials say reviving this important source of revenue is a top concern.

Major hotels in what was once the tourist area of Freetown are mostly empty. The government has helped to reconstruct some, but without the tourists, the industry is at a standstill.

Tourism, along with diamond mining, were major sources of revenue before the war engulfed this African nation in the 1990s.

Jewelry seller Joseph Bangura says he waits on the beach, hoping tourists will return. “I am making nice necklaces for those people who are coming to know our culture and our land,” he says. “At least they won’t forget about us.”

Sierra Leone is one of the poorest nations in the world. The war destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure. Thousands of former combatants still struggle to survive.

Despite these problems, Director of Tourism Alfred Navo says he wants people to know that Sierra Leone is at peace now and there is no reason to be afraid.

“Sierra Leone is no longer at war. We are now fighting against poverty, [for] poverty alleviation,” he explains. “We want people to come. Sierra Leone for now is like a virgin land.”

Navo says Sierra Leone is relying heavily on international aid to help revitalize the tourist industry. “We are handicapped financially in the process because for now we are more dependent on donor funds. Of course they have also their own areas of priority.”

Navo says funding hospitals and schools comes first for most donors, before tourism. He says a number of smaller, independently owned guest houses are opening up.

Raymond Jones has just opened a guesthouse in the center of Freetown. Jones is from Sierra Leone, but has been living in London. He returned to start this business. It is not quite finished, but he says he is confidant people will come. “It helps me; also it helps my country to have good revenue,” he said.

The government hopes others will follow Jones’ lead and invest in tourism. For now, Sierra Leone will continue to prepare its beaches in hopes that one day they will be again be bustling with foreigners and their dispensable incomes.

***VOA.