“Prom Accommodation” Is Bad for American Muslims

 

Several weeks ago a school in Brooklyn was petitioned to move their prom to an earlier date. As reported by The Blaze, the petition had been organized several months before but faculty claim it had not been brought to their attention. The petition was in relation to the beginning of Ramadan. Muslim students at the school wanted to be able to participate in both prom and the beginning of the great Islamic fast.

Initially I was not sure why prom would have anything to do with Ramadan. I have participated in fast-breaking during Ramadan and nothing I observed seem to conflict with what happens at a prom. After the prayers are said almost everyone breaks the fast with dates and milk. Good dates, not bad dates. Then lots of delicious food is brought out and since it is obvious I am a Christian (in general I almost always wear a cross necklace) the merits of Christianity vs. Islam are passionately but civilly discussed. In other words, it is a delicious respite from the insanity of regressive western culture. And aside from skin color and clothing, it’s virtually indiscernible from a Baptist potluck. Theology is being discussed and food is being eaten. That’s Baptist. That’s an ecumenism I can get behind.

Now obviously if prom were during the day it would be more clear why those participating in Ramadan would not also be able to enjoy the festivities of prom. But proms take place at night after the daily observance is over. After some light digging I found that practice of Ramadan often is interpreted as involving avoidance of music. Particularly secular music because of course the Islamic liturgy involves singing.

This issue obviously has some complicated cultural and political issues. And these issues, while not unprecedented in US history, do not have easy or obvious correlations to other religious groups. One issue is the unnecessary entanglement of a public school with religion. This is undoubtedly the tack certain types of unbearable atheists will take. Of course they would have a legitimate point, but not much of one since the lunar dating of the beginning of Ramadan would mean this accommodation would not occur every single year. Also the accommodation should have almost nothing to do with the event itself outside of the date. This is at worst the tiniest sort of entanglement possible. Also accommodating Ramadan observance is clearly an aid to religious freedom and community enrichment rather than an endorsement or imposition upon others. The same unbearable “brights” that would likely take the first line would almost certainly try to fight along this one as well. There would likely be some conservative Christians and right wingers jumping on that bandwagon as well trying to fallaciously prove that this represents government endorsement of a religion.

Thankfully this did not blow up into a massive controversy. Which could be a sign that Trump will draw so much media energy that communities will be allowed to deal with some of these issues in relative anonymity. This is something to consider for all conservatives in positions of power or influence. I think most of us feel that we may be under more scrutiny right now but the regressive media is essentially like a badly led army. They keep committing the fallacy of a frontal assault against a fixed defensive position. This means that while General “Picket” CNN wastes itself on the bloody angle there will assuredly be some opportunities to break PC ranks and win some minor covert political victories for the next three and a half years.

But the simple fact that some Muslims wanted religious accommodation is almost assuredly a bad thing for Muslims. I can’t claim to have a Muslim perspective but if I were part of a religious minority community that believed deeply in things antithetical to the general values of a country like the US (morals like forbidding extramarital sex or teetotalism, which also ironically is identical to being a Baptist) I would be deeply concerned for the next generation. In fact this is not hard for me to imagine at all since my religious background is that of Conservative Baptists! Baptists generally try to participate in things like Prom but not without moral guidance. Older generations of Baptists would probably exclude their children from these sorts of events simply because of the dancing and the secular music. The idea of making prom conform to their principles would most likely be far from their minds. Obedience to their religious faith would be the primary motivation and a simple acceptance of the fact that not everyone thinks and feels the same way. And that’s okay. Society should not have to conform to me but neither should it try to conform me to it.

A cynical devout Muslim could view this attempt at accommodation as an attempt by the young liberal Muslims to engage in Halal without incurring Allah’s fullest wrath. Sort of like a Christian who won’t fool around with their girlfriend on Sundays. Everyone knows that the opportunities to be a bad Muslim are plentiful at an event like prom. Activities like drinking and sex. But from my perspective if this sort of thing becomes a trend the bigger problem could be that Muslims simply do not want to acclimate as genuine Americans. And this is really not good for anybody.

This has certainly become a huge problem in Europe and the UK. It has not been as bad here because of what America is and remains: a nation of laws, not last names. Where you came from has nothing to do with whether or not you can be a good American. If I were English I would be concerned about immigration for the basic reason that England is an English country. The issue of terrorism is really a completely separate security issue, that is of course deeply related to Islam. But the basic idea that America exists for whoever is willing to be American means that we have no conflict with Islam. Shariah Law has a conflict with American Law but that’s an issue for Muslim Americans to figure out.

But at the end of the day you cannot have your religious cake and eat it too as an American. Well actually you can! Unless your religious cake means that you want to make others eat it also. But America is supposed to be just as capitalist intellectually as it is fiscally and that means that Muslim Americans are welcome to try to convince others all day long that they are right and everything else is wrong. But I’m also free to point out that the Dome of the Rock has variant surahs on it which prove that the textual transmission of the Quran has some errors. And then we get to fight about that with our words and ideas like civilized people.

The upshot is that Catholics and Orthodox Christians never complained about Thanksgiving being during the Advent fast. They adapted as they were able according to conscience. And Jews simply created their own version of Christmas. That’s awesome. That’s virtuous civil freedom. Muslims will be better off if they follow the same line. It isn’t the end of the world if your kid can’t go to prom. Love of Allah’s laws should come before youthful partying. And it’s also not the end of the world if your child engages in Halal during Ramadan … well actually maybe it is, and if that’s the case maybe Allah and YHWH don’t have as much in common as some would have us believe. That’s ‘Merica baby! Ultimately your life is your own and you get to make real decisions with it everyday. Freedom isn’t easy, its good.

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  1. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    A.C. Gleason: Good dates, not bad dates.

    I saw what you did there.  But isn’t the whole point of proms good dates?

    • #1
  2. A.C. Gleason Inactive
    A.C. Gleason
    @aarong3eason

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    A.C. Gleason: Good dates, not bad dates.

    I saw what you did there. But isn’t the whole point of proms good dates?

    I don’t know. My Christian Missiomsry Kid HS didn’t have dances or Prom. But based on every TV show & movie I’ve ever seen set in a HS it seems that whatever the point may be bad dates are more prevalent!

    • #2
  3. La Tapada Member
    La Tapada
    @LaTapada

    Couldn’t we argue that the academic calendar always takes Good Friday and Easter into account in scheduling Spring Break, so why not accommodate Ramadan too? But perhaps then we’d have to start accommodating a variety of other religions as well.

    Great post! I enjoyed it. (I went to a Christian missionary HS too.)

    • #3
  4. Stina Inactive
    Stina
    @CM

    A.C. Gleason: But the basic idea that America exist for whoever is willing to be American

    Where did this come from? When? What are its origins? Because prior to reading here, the only place I ever heard a whisper of this was from the extreme left.

    • #4
  5. A.C. Gleason Inactive
    A.C. Gleason
    @aarong3eason

    La Tapada (View Comment):
    Couldn’t we argue that the academic calendar always takes Good Friday and Easter into account in scheduling Spring Break, so why not accommodate Ramadan too? But perhaps then we’d have to start accommodating a variety of other religions as well.

    Great post! I enjoyed it. (I went to a Christian missionary HS too.)

    That’s one reason I’m not very pro public school. Also I work there…that’s a good way to make you dislike public education. I like vouchers for private schools, whatever their deal is. But there is something to be said for public schools and I guess if Easter actually is part of the spring break calculation then that would be similar. I don’t think the district I work in does take it into account. But back when lent actually was seriously observed by Catholics I don’t think the cafeterias served tuna fish options (well probably in Boston). Either way to me it’s not that big a deal. I just think there are advantages to being forced out of participating in something based on religious conviction. Look at the conservative Jewish community. Sports on saturdays are out every weekend. Doesn’t seem to be hurting them.

    • #5
  6. A.C. Gleason Inactive
    A.C. Gleason
    @aarong3eason

    Stina (View Comment):

    A.C. Gleason: But the basic idea that America exist for whoever is willing to be American

    Where did this come from? When? What are its origins? Because prior to reading here, the only place I ever heard a whisper of this was from the extreme left.

    Are you joking? This was an essential part of the founding of the US. Charles Murray does an amazing comparison of US cultural diversity today with the early 1800s in “We the People” and if anything we are far less diverse today than they were. There’s more variation in melanin but virtually no difference in principles, which I think is what makes the bi partisan divide so severe. The differences are small in number but remarkably extreme and almost always binary. If there were more cultural variation I think there would be less fighting because we’d essentially be forced to learn to get along based on practical rather than legal issues.

    • #6
  7. Stina Inactive
    Stina
    @CM

    La Tapada (View Comment):
    Couldn’t we argue that the academic calendar always takes Good Friday and Easter into account in scheduling Spring Break, so why not accommodate Ramadan too? But perhaps then we’d have to start accommodating a variety of other religions as well.

    Great post! I enjoyed it. (I went to a Christian missionary HS too.)

    CFl / Orange County does not consider easter or good friday in spring break schedules. I remeber in elementary school, it did, but not anymore.

    School was in session week before and after easter.

    • #7
  8. La Tapada Member
    La Tapada
    @LaTapada

    Stina (View Comment):

    La Tapada (View Comment):
    Couldn’t we argue that the academic calendar always takes Good Friday and Easter into account in scheduling Spring Break, so why not accommodate Ramadan too? But perhaps then we’d have to start accommodating a variety of other religions as well.

    Great post! I enjoyed it. (I went to a Christian missionary HS too.)

    CFl / Orange County does not consider easter or good friday in spring break schedules. I remeber in elementary school, it did, but not anymore.

    School was in session week before and after easter.

    Ah, well. I live in the southeast. Christianity is still pretty well entrenched here.

    • #8
  9. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    A.C. Gleason (View Comment):

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    A.C. Gleason: Good dates, not bad dates.

    I saw what you did there. But isn’t the whole point of proms good dates?

    I don’t know. My Christian Missiomsry Kid HS didn’t have dances or Prom. But based on every TV show & movie I’ve ever seen set in a HS it seems that whatever the point may be bad dates are more prevalent!

    Sorry.  I thought that was an Indiana Jones reference.  I  didn’t go to my prom.  I went to the beach instead.

    • #9
  10. Fred Cole Inactive
    Fred Cole
    @FredCole

    Forgive me, it’s early morning when I’m reading this.

    Their problem was that the even fell during Ramadan?  Or was there more to it than that?

    • #10
  11. Stina Inactive
    Stina
    @CM

    La Tapada (View Comment):

    Stina (View Comment):

    La Tapada (View Comment):
    Couldn’t we argue that the academic calendar always takes Good Friday and Easter into account in scheduling Spring Break, so why not accommodate Ramadan too? But perhaps then we’d have to start accommodating a variety of other religions as well.

    Great post! I enjoyed it. (I went to a Christian missionary HS too.)

    CFl / Orange County does not consider easter or good friday in spring break schedules. I remeber in elementary school, it did, but not anymore.

    School was in session week before and after easter.

    Ah, well. I live in the southeast. Christianity is still pretty well entrenched here.

    Central Florida is the Southeast. We schedule spring break around the other counties in central Florida so as not to overwhelm the beaches and whatnot.

    • #11
  12. A.C. Gleason Inactive
    A.C. Gleason
    @aarong3eason

    Stina (View Comment):

    La Tapada (View Comment):
    Couldn’t we argue that the academic calendar always takes Good Friday and Easter into account in scheduling Spring Break, so why not accommodate Ramadan too? But perhaps then we’d have to start accommodating a variety of other religions as well.

    Great post! I enjoyed it. (I went to a Christian missionary HS too.)

    CFl / Orange County does not consider easter or good friday in spring break schedules. I remeber in elementary school, it did, but not anymore.

    School was in session week before and after easter.

    I work in OC so that makes sense.

    • #12
  13. A.C. Gleason Inactive
    A.C. Gleason
    @aarong3eason

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    A.C. Gleason (View Comment):

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    A.C. Gleason: Good dates, not bad dates.

    I saw what you did there. But isn’t the whole point of proms good dates?

    I don’t know. My Christian Missiomsry Kid HS didn’t have dances or Prom. But based on every TV show & movie I’ve ever seen set in a HS it seems that whatever the point may be bad dates are more prevalent!

    Sorry. I thought that was an Indiana Jones reference. I didn’t go to my prom. I went to the beach instead.

    It was in the post! I feel Gimli should be quoted as often as possible.

    But in responding to your comment I went back to the “real” world. Beach sounds nice. I don’t know that many people who regret not going to their prom.

    • #13
  14. A.C. Gleason Inactive
    A.C. Gleason
    @aarong3eason

    La Tapada (View Comment):
    Couldn’t we argue that the academic calendar always takes Good Friday and Easter into account in scheduling Spring Break, so why not accommodate Ramadan too? But perhaps then we’d have to start accommodating a variety of other religions as well.

    Great post! I enjoyed it. (I went to a Christian missionary HS too.)

    Sorry I didn’t respond to this before but which school did you attend? I went to Faith Academy in Antipolo. Which I think is still the largest MK school in the world, but that’s like being the tallest Pygmy!

    • #14
  15. A.C. Gleason Inactive
    A.C. Gleason
    @aarong3eason

    Fred Cole (View Comment):
    Forgive me, it’s early morning when I’m reading this.

    Their problem was that the even fell during Ramadan? Or was there more to it than that?

    I don’t completely understand the situation. Here is the blaze article:

    http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/05/30/students-want-prom-on-ramadan-changed-so-muslims-can-attend-the-schools-reply-may-surprise-you/

    But my gleaming is that at least from the perspective of some of these Muslims they would have been violating the fast by going to Prom. My understanding was always that once the fast is broken at night it basically goes back to normal life till the next day, but I’m only really beginning to see how little I actually understand about Islam. One reason I posted this was out of a hope that someone who understood the issue better might swoop in and fill in my gaps or show me how I’m completely wrong on the whole thing.

    personally I think it had more to do with parents worried that their kids would incur more ire from Allah if they went to prom during Ramadan not because of violations pertaining to the fast itself but because they would be opening themselves to regular Islamic violations. Growing up overseas in a syncretic catholic country with some radical Islamist presence this seems psychologically plausible.

    • #15
  16. Fred Cole Inactive
    Fred Cole
    @FredCole

    I don’t get what the problem is. There’s enough Muslim students at the school that this is a thing.

    Schools in New York accommodate holidays based on district demographics. My school district growing up didn’t give us Jewish holidays off, but the next district over did. And the school cafeteria menu at my school was meatless on Fridays during Lent.

    What’s the problem with accommodating this request? Schools are supposed to meet the needs of their student population, not the other way around.

    • #16
  17. La Tapada Member
    La Tapada
    @LaTapada

    A.C. Gleason (View Comment):

    La Tapada (View Comment):
    Couldn’t we argue that the academic calendar always takes Good Friday and Easter into account in scheduling Spring Break, so why not accommodate Ramadan too? But perhaps then we’d have to start accommodating a variety of other religions as well.

    Great post! I enjoyed it. (I went to a Christian missionary HS too.)

    Sorry I didn’t respond to this before but which school did you attend? I went to Faith Academy in Antipolo. Which I think is still the largest MK school in the world, but that’s like being the tallest Pygmy!

    @aarong3eason, I attended Yarinacocha High School, a school run by Wycliffe Bible Translators, in the Peruvian Amazon. We had a student body of around 60 (9th-12th grades).

    • #17
  18. A.C. Gleason Inactive
    A.C. Gleason
    @aarong3eason

    Fred Cole (View Comment):
    I don’t get what the problem is. There’s enough Muslim students at the school that this is a thing.

    Schools in New York accommodate holidays based on district demographics. My school district growing up didn’t give us Jewish holidays off, but the next district over did. And the school cafeteria menu at my school was meatless on Fridays during Lent.

    What’s the problem with accommodating this request? Schools are supposed to meet the needs of their student population, not the other way around.

    I don’t really have a problem with it either.

    • #18
  19. Lois Lane Coolidge
    Lois Lane
    @LoisLane

    Stina (View Comment):

    La Tapada (View Comment):
    Couldn’t we argue that the academic calendar always takes Good Friday and Easter into account in scheduling Spring Break, so why not accommodate Ramadan too? But perhaps then we’d have to start accommodating a variety of other religions as well.

    Great post! I enjoyed it. (I went to a Christian missionary HS too.)

    CFl / Orange County does not consider easter or good friday in spring break schedules. I remeber in elementary school, it did, but not anymore.

    School was in session week before and after easter.

    No school at which I have taught–except that which is a Catholic university, but that’s private–or that my son has attended has taken Easter into account for Spring Break.   However, practicing Catholics were “excused” from school if they decided to go to mass instead of calculus on Good Friday.

    Also, I enjoyed the essay.  :)

    • #19
  20. ClosetSubversive Inactive
    ClosetSubversive
    @ClosetSubversive

    I say accommodate the Muslims.  Where we can be kind, let’s be kind.

    • #20
  21. MSJL Thatcher
    MSJL
    @MSJL

    I also don’t see this request as much of a big deal.  I can appreciate some of the points about conflicts between an event and religious observances, particularly in connection with fixed holidays.  This is a Prom – they can schedule it any time they want (for all practical purposes) and it doesn’t seem unreasonable to ask that the event be moved up or back some amount of time to accommodate.

    I can also understand the school’s position that with the Prom already scheduled months in advance that it is too late to reschedule it.  But I don’t find the request itself to be an issue.

     

    • #21
  22. Amy Schley Coolidge
    Amy Schley
    @AmySchley

    A.C. Gleason: Sundays. Everyone knows that the opportunities to be a bad Muslim are plentiful at an event like prom. Activities like drinking and sex. But from my perspective if this sort of thing becomes a trend the bigger problem could be that Muslims simply do not want to acclimate as genuine Americans. And this is really not good for anybody.

    I’m trying to understand this bit … it almost sounds like you’re not a genuine American unless you get drunk and fool around on your prom. Are Muslims supposed to acclimate like other religious Americans and not their kids go? Or just acclimate to be like most Americans and think the only sin in being drunk is driving while doing so and the only sin in fornicating is forgetting how to use a condom?

    • #22
  23. Suspira Member
    Suspira
    @Suspira

    La Tapada (View Comment):
    (I went to a Christian missionary HS too.)

    There are high schools for missionary kids?

    • #23
  24. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    If you’re a missionary to a neolithic Amazonian tribe, it’s not likely they’ll have high schools.

    • #24
  25. James Of England Inactive
    James Of England
    @JamesOfEngland

    Randy Webster (View Comment):
    If you’re a missionary to a neolithic Amazonian tribe, it’s not likely they’ll have high schools.

    There are domestic missionaries as well as foreign. I’d be surprised if there was much call for high schools for active duty missionaries, but there are certainly high schools in certain parts of the mountain west that almost exclusively educate people who will go testify shortly thereafter.

    • #25
  26. James Of England Inactive
    James Of England
    @JamesOfEngland

    Amy Schley (View Comment):

    A.C. Gleason: Sundays. Everyone knows that the opportunities to be a bad Muslim are plentiful at an event like prom. Activities like drinking and sex. But from my perspective if this sort of thing becomes a trend the bigger problem could be that Muslims simply do not want to acclimate as genuine Americans. And this is really not good for anybody.

    I’m trying to understand this bit … it almost sounds like you’re not a genuine American unless you get drunk and fool around on your prom. Are Muslims supposed to acclimate like other religious Americans and not their kids go? Or just acclimate to be like most Americans and think the only sin in being drunk is driving while doing so and the only sin in fornicating is forgetting how to use a condom?

    I didn’t follow it, either. To me, it sounded like saying that Hobby Lobby’s owners are bad for American Christians. Just because someone unfamiliar with Christianity says that they should be cool with contraception and many other Christians are doesn’t mean that Christianity would benefit from their being compelled to supply it. Similarly, if some Muslims believe that they ought not to attend Prom during Ramadan, that seems like precisely the sort of theological inquiry that the First Amendment does not permit the government to engage in.

    As A.C. says, we Orthodox accommodate Thanksgiving. If the date of Prom were fixed as clearly as Thanksgiving is, Muslims would probably suck it up. If I were organizing a baby shower, though, and had a choice about whether to put it in Advent or not, I’d obviously prefer to have it outside Advent. Similarly, if it appears to be a small burden, when the time arises, for my kid’s school to accommodate their dietary requirements, I’d appreciate it if they’d go to that effort. If it’s a serious burden, I guess the kid will go hungry, or accommodate it either through derogation from the fast or by going to independent effort.

    If Hobby Lobby opposed vaccination (a theological opinion that has not always been trivial), there’s every chance they’d have lost their case. I’m not sure if the predicate argument is that there’s some vital cost to society incurred by having a slightly earlier prom date, but I feel moderately confident that the reasonable exercise of religious liberty is not such a terrible thing.

    • #26
  27. Isaac Smith Member
    Isaac Smith
    @

    Stina (View Comment):

    A.C. Gleason: But the basic idea that America exist for whoever is willing to be American

    Where did this come from? When? What are its origins? Because prior to reading here, the only place I ever heard a whisper of this was from the extreme left.

    I took it differently than how I think you took it.  I think you understand this in the open borders idea that seems to exist on the left (unfortunately not just the extreme left).  I understood this as meaning that America is fundamentally an idea about individual freedom, individual responsibility and fundamental equality before the law.  And that what marks an American is acceptance of these ideas.  Yes, we get to say who comes here in the first place, but once we welcome you we have a right to expect that you accept these ideas, whether you prayer to Jesus, YWVH, Allah or Krishna.  And if you do, you are an American, regardless of where you, your parents or grandparents were born or the color of your skin or your faith or lack thereof.  For the left, this idea of America doesn’t exist.  At least that’s how I took it.  (Do I need to add that I agree?)

    • #27
  28. Isaac Smith Member
    Isaac Smith
    @

    A.C. Gleason (View Comment):

    La Tapada (View Comment):
    Couldn’t we argue that the academic calendar always takes Good Friday and Easter into account in scheduling Spring Break, so why not accommodate Ramadan too? But perhaps then we’d have to start accommodating a variety of other religions as well.

    Great post! I enjoyed it. (I went to a Christian missionary HS too.)

    That’s one reason I’m not very pro public school. Also I work there…that’s a good way to make you dislike public education. I like vouchers for private schools, whatever their deal is. But there is something to be said for public schools and I guess if Easter actually is part of the spring break calculation then that would be similar. I don’t think the district I work in does take it into account. But back when lent actually was seriously observed by Catholics I don’t think the cafeterias served tuna fish options (well probably in Boston).

    It still is seriously observed by practicing Catholics and I recall fish (usually fish sticks) being on the menu on Fridays when I was growing up and attending public schools.  Not from Boston.  I don’t think a community accommodating a significant portion of their student base is unreasonable.  So I don’t have a problem with making sure there are non-pork options on the school lunch menu every day.  But I do have problems with the idea that small minorities can demand accommodation.

    A few years ago there was a protest at a food shelf in Minneapolis demanding that because the shelf was in an area with a substantial Somali population it should be Halal.  My response to that idea was admittedly not very Christian, but along the lines of beggars can’t be choosers.

    • #28
  29. Isaac Smith Member
    Isaac Smith
    @

    Stina (View Comment):
    Central Florida is the Southeast. We schedule spring break around the other counties in central Florida so as not to overwhelm the beaches and whatnot.

    Do you mean the I4 corridor?  Or the central portion of the peninsula not within 10 miles of the coast?  Florida is culturally three states – the southern is very Latin, the Gulf coast and the Atlantic coast north of Ft. Lauderdale to about Daytona and the I4 corridor are largely Yankees states that wandered south to get warm and the rest are very much Southeast – deep south.

    • #29
  30. A.C. Gleason Inactive
    A.C. Gleason
    @aarong3eason

    Isaac Smith (View Comment):

    A.C. Gleason (View Comment):

    La Tapada (View Comment):
    Couldn’t we argue that the academic calendar always takes Good Friday and Easter into account in scheduling Spring Break, so why not accommodate Ramadan too? But perhaps then we’d have to start accommodating a variety of other religions as well.

    Great post! I enjoyed it. (I went to a Christian missionary HS too.)

    That’s one reason I’m not very pro public school. Also I work there…that’s a good way to make you dislike public education. I like vouchers for private schools, whatever their deal is. But there is something to be said for public schools and I guess if Easter actually is part of the spring break calculation then that would be similar. I don’t think the district I work in does take it into account. But back when lent actually was seriously observed by Catholics I don’t think the cafeterias served tuna fish options (well probably in Boston).

    It still is seriously observed by practicing Catholics and I recall fish (usually fish sticks) being on the menu on Fridays when I was growing up and attending public schools. Not from Boston. I don’t think a community accommodating a significant portion of their student base is unreasonable. So I don’t have a problem with making sure there are non-pork options on the school lunch menu every day. But I do have problems with the idea that small minorities can demand accommodation.

    A few years ago there was a protest at a food shelf in Minneapolis demanding that because the shelf was in an area with a substantial Somali population it should be Halal. My response to that idea was admittedly not very Christian, but along the lines of beggars can’t be choosers.

    I know Catholics still observe lent but catholic fish fries are deeply antithetical to the traditional way that lent was observed, lent is a lot more than just substituting one kind of meat for another kind. It’s supposed to be a fast not an abstention. That’s what I mean by seriously. The Orthodox seem to have maintained a far more strict & fast based lent.

    I don’t think they shouldn’t accommodate. I think that there’s a diffence between a serious discussion with parents and a petition from students. And if they won’t accommodate or can’t accommodate, that’s not necessaryily a violation of freedom of religion. I also don’t think that the petition was done in that spirit, in a we’re Americans and protected by the first  amendment way. I think it was done with an SJW minority privilege way.

    • #30
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