Maryland School Board Removes Christmas, Easter From School Calendar

A school district in Montgomery, Maryland is receiving criticism for allegedly removing Christmas and other Christian holidays from its school calendar in an attempt to appease the local Muslim community.

The Board of Education in Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland, recently voted 7 to 1 to remove reference to Christian holidays, including Christmas and Easter, from its official school calendar beginning in the 2015-2016 school year.

Although students and faculty will still have days like Christmas Eve and Christmas off from school, the days will not be marked on the calendar by their official holiday title. The recent move by the Board of Education was made in response to a local Muslim community that requested the school recognize the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Adha as an official holiday on its school calendar.

In response, the district removed reference to all Christian and Jewish holidays, including Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah.

The board's recent decision has angered Muslims in the community, who argue that the board did not answer their request by eliminating the Christian and Jewish holidays from the calendar.

Zainab Chaudry, a co-chair of the Equality for Eid Coalition, told The Washington Post that the school board will "go so far as to paint themselves as the Grinch who stole Christmas" to avoid making Eid-al-Adha an official school holiday.

"They would remove the Christian holidays and they would remove the Jewish holidays from the calendar before they would consider adding the Muslim holiday to the calendar," she said.