Tampa, USA - Amid controversy followed nationwide, a Florida school board restored religious holidays to its calendar after removing them due to a request by Muslims to have an observance of their own.
The Hillsborough County School Board in the Tampa Bay area voted 5-2 Tuesday night to adopt a 2006-2007 calendar that gives children a day off on Yom Kippur, Good Friday and the Monday after Easter.
The issue gained national attention when Hillsborough County Commissioner Brian Blair criticized the school board on the Fox News channel program "The O'Reilly Factor" after its vote to eliminate the holidays.
The controversy began last December when Ahmed Bedier, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, requested a school holiday for Eid Al-Fitr, an Islamic holy day marking the end of Ramadan. The board then decided to reconsider the district calendar, voting to delete all religious holidays and replace them with time off for Washington's birthday in February and two days near the end of the school year.
Bedier called the change away from observing religious holidays "just an excuse to hide bias against the Muslims."
After the vote Tuesday, Bedier called the restoration a "temporary solution."
"I'm disappointed but I'm satisfied," he told the St. Petersburg Times. "We're back at square one. If others are getting their holidays, it gives us hope we'll get ours as well someday."
Several individuals connected to the Council on American-Islamic Relations have been indicted on terrorism-related charges. In addition, CAIR's chairman of the board, Omar Ahmad, was cited by a California newspaper in 1998 declaring the Quran should be America's highest authority. He also was reported to have said Islam is not in America to be equal to any other religion but to be dominant.
The vote to eliminate religious holidays sparked a flood of more than 3,500 e-mails to the school board from outraged members of the community and others from across the nation.
Many blamed the Muslims for the loss of the holidays and argued the Christian and Jewish days are part of the nation's Judeo-Christian heritage.
The school board's vote Tuesday came after 24 citizens were allowed to voice their opinion, including one man who brought his Bible, the Times reported.
"You forgot our creator who created you," Cynthia Forde told board members. "You keep saying he don't exist. You ain't the boss. We are. We voted you in.
"You've got to change your mind."