Quote:
Originally Posted by Mrs. Robinson
I am incensed by your comment! What religion are you that has instilled such bigotry in you?
I am not well versed in Ramadan, however, I do know that it is a month of fasting -- a peaceful month, and one of the holiest holidays of the religion.
When would you have liked this article to appear?
In August or February, perhaps? Or probably, never!
Why should a local paper not give recognition to a major religion's holy month, regardless of when it falls during the year?
Ramadan follows a lunar calendar and this year it happened to fall during the Memorial Day weekend.
So what!
The press has also given major acknowledgement to our veterans and the Memorial Day holiday.
The press also always has articles relating to Christmas, Chanukah, Easter, Passover, etc., and they are timely published when the holidays are current.
Your comment is waaaayyyyy off base and an embarrassment!
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I don't know that we can consider Isla a major religion in the United States.
70% of the people in this country identify as Christians, 23% are unaffiliated, 7% are either agnostic or atheists, 1.9% are Jewish and less than 1% are Muslim. There are almost as many Buddhist and Hindus as there are Muslims.
So tell me again why there should be a major article in a newspaper about a religious holiday in a country where less then 1% of the population follow that religion. It makes even less sense if we take into consideration the percentage of Muslims in The Villages where less than one half of one percent of us are Muslims.
I our almost 250 year history, Islam was hardly noticed and hardly spoken about. Now that we are at war with Muslim based organizations, we suddenly need to learn all about the faith and we need to maker sure that they are welcome.
I do realize that there are many peaceful Muslims that mean us no harm. Perhaps the vast majority of them fall into that category. But they have been here in the country for over 200 years and there was hardy a mention of them. Since 9/11 it seems that they have become more important for some reason.
I honestly don't have any problem with a newspaper that wants to run a story about Islam or Ramadan. My question is why? There are simply not very people interested. It might make sense in some areas of the country where there is a large Muslim population, but why would they do it here?