Bronx, NY—Hundreds of Muslim residents gathered on Friday, February 18^th to learn about their rights as New York City residents and register to vote.

The Muslim School Holidays Coalition sponsored this voter registration drive at the Bronx Islamic Cultural Center as part of its ongoing campaign to have the two most important Muslim holidays, or Eids, recognized by the New York City public school system.

“As a young Muslim, it is very important for me to be registered to vote,” said Kasem, a member of Muslim-American Society youth group and the New York Civic Participation Project.

Currently, there are about 600,000 Muslims in New York City and Muslim students make up approximately 12 percent, or more than 100,000, of the city’s public school students.

Arleen Barcenas running for the Paterson Board of Education.

The Coalition proposes to add the two holy days Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha to the school calendar.  According to the Coalition, these holidays often fall on other religious holidays, on weekends or during the summer. They want them added to the school calendar to send a clear message that Muslims are accepted and respected as an integral part of New York City. The two holidays have already been adopted by other school districts including Dearborn, Mich., and several municipalities in New Jersey.

On June 30th, 2009, the New York City Council passed a resolution in support of the Coalition’s demand to recognize Muslim School Holidays, but the Department of Education and Mayor Bloomberg have refused to take action based on City Council’s recommendation.

This delay on the part of Mayor Bloomberg motivated the Coalition to host Friday’s event, according to Bahir Mustafa, one of the event’s coordinators. “We have decided to organize our community to vote and to show that our community needs to be heard,” he said.