Muslims in the USA have put their name to a great success. After an intense persuasive effort of the Turks, The New York Council has decided that in the town the schools will be on vacation during the Eid al-Fitr (Festival of Ramadan) and the Eid al-Adha (Festival of Sacrifice). It is stated that the decision might be carried out to the whole USA in upcoming years.
After the President Barack Obama"s declaration of Muslims in his speeches in Turkey and Egypt, the New York Council has put their name to this historical decision. The Turkish community"s effective non-governmental organization has yielded its results, and the council is persuaded after rejecting the previous applications. The council have decided to close the schools and declared the vacation during the Festival of Ramadan and the Festival of Sacrifice, only one member used a vote against the decision.
INCREASE ON THE MUSLIM POPULATION
The schools in the USA are closed on the other main religious holidays. However, this had not been the case for the Islamic religious observations the most important holidays being the Festival of Ramadan and the Festival of Sacrifice. After accepting the proposal, New York City Council had summoned the City"s Ministry of Education to reschedule the holidays and to including the festivals of Muslims celebration. Furthermore, before the decision was made by the increasing Muslim population who are living in New York, 12 percent of the Muslim students in the state"s schools had also taken into consideration when the decision had been made.
JOYFUL RECEPTION
The decision was met with a joyful reception by the Muslims living in New York. The application of this result maybe considered across the USA by next year. It was highlighted that the decision of the council was made immediately after the President Obama"s historical speech in Cairo, the capital of Egypt.
WE SUCCEEDED BY THE COURTESY OF TURKS
In the previous year, Muslim Americans mostly consisted of African-Americans requested if the council would vote "YES" to the proposal of Islamic religious observation. When they did not receive any support to their request the Muslim American group approached the Turkish-American Federation to help them to address this agenda. The counsellor of the Turkish-American federation, Ibrahim Kurtulus, he had been successful in persuading the New York City Council with this proposal, ‘The life of Muslim children will be more favourable". According to James Oddo, Republican members of the Staten Island City Council, he had made a declaration on behalf of the Muslim Americans, stating that "We have succeeded this momentous event with the intervention of the Turkish-American community".