California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a law recognizing two Islamic rituals as state holidays for Muslim workers. The law also allows public schools the option to close in observance of the religious customs.
Critics of the legislation point out that Muslims make up about 1% of the state’s population while Christians make up 55% and Jews represent about 3%, yet the other religious groups’ holidays are not sanctioned by California.
For example, the state doesn’t recognize Good Friday in honor of Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross or His resurrection from the grave which is also celebrated by Christians each year at Easter.
Newsom did sign a separate bill acknowledging the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in state law, however, the statute only requires public schools and universities to make reasonable attempts to avoid scheduling public meetings or major events on those Jewish holy days. The law makes no allowance for public school closures.
“The state of California doesn’t honor any other religion,” Rabbi Michael Barclay told CBN News. “But suddenly they’re kowtowing and catering to what is effectively Sharia law.”
“Ramadan is not a month of peace,” the former Loyola Marymount instructor asserted. “In fact, al-Qaida calls it the month of conquests. And it’s a horrible statement about California and about our politicians who are pandering for whatever money or votes they think they can get from the Islamic community.”
The new law’s accommodations for individual public school districts to determine their own closures for Muslim holidays is of specific concern for critics who say it’s a step toward enabling predominantly Islamic areas to operate autonomously under their own Islamic rules known as Sharia law.
California’s newly codified observance of Eid al-Fitr marks the conclusion of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. For Muslims, the religious observance lasts officially for one day of prayer, while cultural celebrations can extend for up to three days. The annual celebration is scheduled in accordance with the lunar calendar system’s first sighting of the new crescent moon usually around the 29th day of Ramadan. The 2027 observance is expected to begin around March 10.
Eid al-Adha, the second Muslim holiday sanctioned by California, commemorates the end of the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca and is also celebrated around local crescent moon sightings, tentatively scheduled next for May 16, 2027. Muslim families around the world participate in animal sacrifices, a tradition that dates back centuries. As many as 50 million sheep, goats, cows and camels are slaughtered and eaten worldwide in a single day.
Danny Burmawi, a former Muslim and political analyst, tells CBN News that California’s promotion of Islamic holidays represents a political alliance between the radical left and Islam.
“The problem is that Islam has joined the group of the oppressed in that imagination of the radical left, and they don’t care about what Islam claims, what Islam’s intentions are,” Burmawi said. “They care that Islam is a weapon that could be utilized against the Christians, the white, the male, the power system they are trying to take down.”
Biblical passages to ponder: John 14:6, Exodus 20:2-5, Jeremiah 14:21-22
