A Fox News commentator and religious right activist is calling New York City’s decision to include two Muslim holidays on its school calendar “discrimination.”
Todd Starnes sees every attempt at inclusion and diversity as a direct attack on his interpretation of the Christian faith. The Fox News commentator and religious right activist says Mayor Bill de Blasio‘s decision to add two Muslim holidays to New York City’s school calendar amounts to anti-Christian discrimination.
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins invited Starnes onto his radio show Thursday to discuss the issue. Perkins falsely claimed that “Christmas and Easter, two very prominent Christian holidays, they’re not on the school calendar, they’re called ‘winter break’ and ‘spring break.’â€
Starnes, a New York City resident, of course concurred.Â
“Oh yes. For the sake of tolerance and diversity, that normally means the Christians are going to be discriminated against or their holidays are going to be minimalized.â€
He did point out that ten percent of NYC’s student population is Muslim, but insisted that the City rename those holidays, to keep with the false claim that Christmas and Easter aren’t recognized except as “winter break.”
And Starnes used the false claims to falsely attack President Obama as well.
“How many times have we seen this, where the Islamic faith is being given accommodation and the Christian faith and other religious faiths are being marginalized, not just in the public workspace but also through the Obama administration.â€
Of course, Perkins’ and Starnes’ claim is false, as Right Wing Watch points out, “Christmas does in fact appear on New York City’s list of school holidays,” and “Easter always falls on a Sunday, which would explain why it is not on a school vacation calendar,” as you can see on the NYC school calendar RWW points to.
Listen:
A few tweets from Starnes’ twitter feed:
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