Should Eid be a national holiday?

Ideally, I'd love for Eid to be a nat'l holiday, but the fact is, we live in a Judeo-Christian society which does not by any means prioritize Muslim agendas or favor them as a people or minority at the nat'l level. Honestly, it'll take a hell long time for that to happen. You think the christian fatcats in congress are going to let their nation have this "mawslimb" interference? I don't think so........

... what is Eid? i havent heard of nit, and generally national holidays are things that are at least publically acknowledged as a major holiday. i mean, i wouldn't mind if it WERE a national holiday, but what's the point? it would be joining the ranks of 'columbus day', 'thanksgiving', and other bullshit holidays. its just a day to mandate as a day off for federal workers.

Maybe not in America but definitely in countries like the UK, Germany, France or the Netherlands where there is a substantial Muslim minority. In the US it could be a local holiday in areas with a substantial concentration of Muslims.

Christmas being a Federal Holiday is utilitarian. It is estimated that 80%-90% of Americans celebrate Christmas. Trying to keep offices and businesses open on a day when so many people would have taken the day off would be impossible. There are ~224 million (~76.5%) Christians in the country, add to that people who do not identify as Christian, but celebrate Christmas. There are ~1.5 million Islams (~0.5%) and ~4 million Jews (~1.3%).

The people who wish to celebrate religious holidays should be allowed to do what take time off without penalties, but to force everyone to take a day off for a day that half a percent of the population celebrate seems silly.

Yeah add Eid, then you have to add Holi, Mahashivaratri Shiva, Rama Navami, Krishna Jayanti, Raksābandhana, Kumbh Mela, Ganesha-Chaturthi Dassera, Navaratri, Diwali and about a billion other Hindu holidays.

The key to this would be to make it so people have religion days that they can use to get off of work for their religious holidays. The problem that seems to occur is that you don't get Eid off while Chirstmas is something that everyone gets off. Like others have said this is due mostly to the fact that the majority of people are Chirstians, and even many that don't celebrate it. Therefore Eid probably shouldn't be a national holiday since it really wouldn't be useful to most people. However something should be done for people of other fates, not just Muslims, but the other religions also.

If Christmas is considered a national holiday, I believe that Eid should be given equal recognition as a national holiday.

Ultimately certain holidays recognized within America that are considered denominational also have a superficial component appended on to the already existing (more religiously oriented) traditions. Granted, Christmas is celebrating the birth of Jesus but simultaneously, a major constituent of the holiday includes a tree, presents, and Santa Clause. Likewise, Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus, yet around April, I seldom see advertisements involving this. Rather, I see a shitton of bunnies, eggs, chocolate, and peeps (yum.) Hell, I am not Christian by any means but I celebrate Easter/Christmas every year-that is, the Hallmark gift-oriented version of it. Hence, although it is correct in the sense that certain Christian holidays are acknowledged, by making it nationally recognized, the sanctity of them have almost been tarnished. Unless you want to start seeing Eid made into yet another superficial, commercial-oriented holiday, maybe you should be grateful that it has not been nationally recognized within America. Moreover, simply because it has not been recognized does not mean that all acknowledgment is non-existent. For instance, this past Eid, I remember hearing that the Empire State Building was lit green in respect for the holiday. Thus instead of asking Eid to be a national holiday, companies and schools should be asked to be more cooperative and respective of their students'/employees' faith. Granted, this may cause people who are not generally devout to suddenly "find" religion in order to gain that time off... but that's a whole other issue.

Well, if that's the case than you should also support breaks for other religions in the world. The fact is, you simply cannot support every type of religion or belief. You cannot ignore that the majority of Americans are Christians and it's difficult to break a tradition in America that has gone on so long. Really it's case of compromise.

I do know that many companies and schools are lenient if you can explain to them that you need to take a break for a certain religious activity. The best way to go about this is not by creating another national holiday but by garnering support for institutions to recognize that it is okay and usual to take a day off for your religion if necessary, at most a few times a year.

Additionally, if you reference a wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_holiday, you'll notice that Christmas is actually a Federal holiday, not a national holiday. And you should believe that 'Christmas break' is generally designated as 'Winter Break/Holiday' and is designated by the state you live in.

In a country where it is said there is no national religion, and there are over 3 million Muslims, there's no reason Eid should not be a national holiday. The government already sets aside the Christian holiday of Christmas aside as a day where all public sectors close, there is no reason other religions should not be accommodated. It is not fair for Muslims to have to take sick days from school or work in order to celebrate their faith.