posted on April 15, 2004 01:31:45 PM new
City of Dearborn asked to close on Muslim holidays
DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) Good Friday and Christmas are city holidays. Now, with a large Muslim population living in Dearborn, local leaders of the faith are asking: Why not shut down for our holidays as well?
The western Detroit suburb of 88,000 has been a magnet for immigrants from the Mideast for decades and has one of the nation's largest concentration of Arabs.
Nearly 40 percent of Dearborn public school students are Muslim. The city also serves as a cultural and religious center for the estimated 300,000 members of the Arab-American community in southeastern Michigan.
The two major Muslims holidays in question are Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the monthlong Ramadan fast, and Eid al-Adha, which marks the annual completion of the pilgrimage to Mecca. The dates of the holidays change each year because they are determined by a lunar calendar.
"You do have a large Arab-American population in the city of Dearborn, and it is time for people of the Muslim faith to feel equally important," said Ahmed Chebbani, chairman of the American-Arab Chamber of Commerce.
The American Muslim Society on April 6 asked the City Council to make both days city holidays. The council referred the request to the city's legal department. Each of the Muslim holidays last for several days.
One city councilman expressed doubt.
"The city of Dearborn will follow the state and federal holiday calendar, and until that changes, that's where I stand," Thomas Tafelski said.
posted on April 15, 2004 02:26:12 PM new
Well....workers would probably appreciate any extra days off work they can get.
Even if these two Muslim holidays were inacted, doesn't mean people would get off work, out of school unless they're declared Federal holidays, right????? I know some don't get off for say MLK day. But Federal offices are closed.
I can only imagine how pleased you'd be reamond, for there to be even MORE religious holidays.
posted on April 15, 2004 04:33:53 PM new
40% Muslim students? If their parents are voters, and many probably are or will be, I'd say the city council will eventually listen....like it or not.
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posted on April 15, 2004 06:00:43 PM new
April 14, 2004, 8:50PM
Prayer call on speakers stirs protest
Associated Press
HAMTRAMCK, Mich. -- A request by Muslims to allow mosques to use loudspeakers for the call to prayer has prompted a backlash among some of their mostly white, Christian neighbors.
They are circulating a petition opposing the request by the Al-Islah Islamic Center for a change in the city noise ordinance. The Muslim call to prayer occurs five times a day between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.
"When you call to prayer, you are proselytizing, and as a citizen of the United States, I don't want to hear it," Bob Golen, 68, said at a City Council hearing.
Caroline Zarski, 81, agreed. "It is not my God. My God is Jesus Christ. I don't want this noise invading my home at 10 p.m.," she said.
'We have dispatched Dr. David Kay...to search for the bio-warfare agents we believe hidden in Senator Kerry's forehead. If Senator Kerry has used botox as part of a wrinkle enrichment program, he is in violation of UN Resolution 752. Upon receiving Dr. Kay's report, the weapons of mass destruction that Senator Kerry so adamantly insists do not exist...may well be above his very nose.'" --Dick Cheney when asked whether John Kerry has had Botox treaments
posted on April 15, 2004 06:31:32 PM new
Yea...just heard today there was a church whose church bells hadn't worked for years. Well...they replaced them and now all the neighbors are complaining about the noise from the bells ringing. All except a little 94 year old lady who lives near the church....she loves it. Anyway the church brought the noise level down to decibels that are equivalent to their normal traffic level. LOL It's always something. lol
