Hawaii has no Christianity Day, no Judaism Day, no Buddhism Day. But it is going to have an Islam Day.
Well, fair enough, maybe. Most major public holidays are based around Christian holy days, so I have no problem in principle with having a public holiday for major feast days of other religious groups.
If, and I think this is a reasonable if, that religious group is present in sufficient numbers for those holy days to be considered an important part of the identity of the community as a whole.
According to these figures from the Honolulu Star Bulletin, Muslims are approximately one half of one percent of the population of Hawaii:
Religious Groups in Hawaii as a Proportion of Population
Half of one percent might be stretching things a little. If I lived in Thailand, where there are about the same proportion of Christians as there are Muslims in Hawaii, I would not expect the government to set aside Christian feast days as public holidays.
But Hawaii wants to have an Islam Day. OK.
What day to choose? An Islamic feast day? A day commemorating some event in the life of Mohammed?
The day chosen is Gregorian date September 24th. This day corresponds to no holiday in the Islamic calendar. But in the Julian calendar it is September 11.
For more detail, see this article from Canada Free Press.
I think Obama plays very well with noarml Americans. Ask this question in a poll: “Do you favor Obama’s proposal of going after terrorists in Pakistan even if it means alienating our Muslim allies?”My guess is 80% of Americans would say yes. I voted for W because he did something. This action puts Obama to the right of most GOP candidates.I don’t care about Pakistan or Islam. If it is a fight (and it is) let’s go get them wherever they live. I would love to see W posing over bin Laden’s dead carcass. Let us get all enemies of the USA and let their friends weep over our lack of manners.And remember, the same voices that will say that Obama is “naieve” are the ones urging us to call off the surge. One’s enemies enemies are NOT one friends.