BUFFALO, N.Y. — Nishat Obaid is a senior at DaVinci High School in Buffalo. Nishat says it’s important to her to celebrate the Islamic Holiday Eid-al-Fitr.
"Eid is important to me because it’s a holiday for Muslims where we get to hang out with our families and just enjoy after the month of Ramadan, or just like being able to just be grateful for the blessings we have and create a brotherhood along with praying and creating new memories," Nishat said.
There are two main holidays celebrate in Islam, Eid-al-Fitr and Eid-al-Adha. But celebrating Eid the way they’d like to isn’t always possible for Muslim students in Buffalo. Eid-al-Fitr usually falls during the school year, which is why the Buffalo Islamic Cultural Center is requesting that that Buffalo Public Schools give Muslim students the holidays off.
"This year, our Eid is on May 2 or May 3, depending on the moon site, because Eid is. We follow the lunar calendar. If Eid is on May 3, we have [an] AP exam, it begins on May 3. So if we miss the day, we’re missing the exam and this exam is really important for our kids," said Fakiha Tanha, Nishat’s aunt.
Nishat echoes that concern. She says even if it’s not on an AP exam day, she would still have to miss school to celebrate Eid-al-Fitr.
"We have to constantly choose whether or not we’re going to go to school for that one day or not go. If we don’t go that one day, we’re missing valuable information, and homework is piling up, and we also lose time with our family if we do go to school," Nishat said.
Leaders of the Buffalo Islamic Cultural Center sent a letter to Lovejoy Councilman Bryan Bollman, whose district the center is in, requesting the Islamic holidays off. Councilman Bollman is also the chairman of the Buffalo Common Council Education committee.
"I thought that would be a good spot to bring this out and talk about it and bring it to the forefront," Councilman Bollman said.
ASM Sirajul Islam is the imam at the Buffalo ICC. He says this is important as the local Muslim population is growing.
"Every year, [there are] lots of people moving from different states to Buffalo. Especially a lot of Muslim people migrate here from different cities, different states. Right now in Buffalo, city is growing up. There is a diversity in here, like all kind of religions," he said.
The next step is a discussion with the school district to see how the request could be translated and implemented in Buffalo.
In a statement, Buffalo Public School District said, "It would not require NYSED approval. Our board has the authority to develop a calendar, but it must meet NYSED requirements for days/hours of instruction in a year. Further, we have limitations on the number of holidays we can include because of restrictions in the BTF contract."
