It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

We, as young people, look forward to holiday breaks as soon as summer ends and school begins. Being the more popular holidays, a majority of students in public school get Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and Easter. Well not for this unlucky student that just wanted an excused absence. At Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey, students are allowed to take the day off for the Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur. But when a muslim student asks for Eid al-Adha, she is unfortunately denied the same opportunity.

A sophomore at Rutgers is a muslim, and like most students who observe religious holidays, notified her professor of an excused absence for one of two major Muslim holidays.
Her math teacher responded (names have been withheld):

"Hello [redacted] I am sure that attending classes on a religious holiday is not prohibited in your religion. Please bring me a document from your religious leader confirming you should not attend classes on a religious holiday and I will accept the confirmation as a valid excuse for your class absence. However, I could imagine that your religious leader may recommend you to attend a class as there is no contradiction between learning and serving the needs of your religion. God wants you to learn and to succeed in life. Regardless what your religious leaders recommends, please keep in mind that a religious holiday does not exempt you from learning the material. As you may know, learning the material on your own is much more different than attending a class and being given an exposition of the subject. Mathematics is a creation of God. By learning mathematics, we worship indirectly God. For that reason, studying mathematics does not offend God. To the contrary, studying mathematics means honoring God. God wants us to succeed in life. I do not know any religion which prohibits learning on religious holidays. Do you?"

When she first read the email, the 18-year-old student told Teen Vogue, "My mouth opened in surprise and astonishment, I found it quite funny at the same time. I was just like, 'What the heck? Is he serious?' I couldn't believe what I was reading and as I continued reading, it just got more and more ridiculous." This is completely outrageous how this math teacher can dictate what her religious leader wants and telling her what God would want and what He would say. 

Luckily for this student, Rutgers has a religious holiday policy that appears to be working in her favor: 

"It is University policy (University Regulation on Attendance, Book 2, 2.47B, formerly 60.14f) to excuse without penalty students who are absent from class because of religious observance, and to allow the make-up of work missed because of such absence. Examinations and special required out-of-class activities shall ordinarily not be scheduled on those days when religiously observant students refrain from participating in secular activities. Absences for reasons of religious obligation shall not be counted for purposes of reporting.” 

The administration immediately acted on this conflict once they were notified and told the student was entitled to this holiday off. “The message sent to the student does not reflect our policy on religious observance. The dean of the College of Arts and Sciences has spoken to the professor, who is issuing an apology,” Peter Englot, senior vice chancellor of public affairs, tells Teen Vogue in an email statement.


We are glad that she is getting an apology because when she kindly responded to the initial email from her teacher saying, that, like Christmas where students get multiple days off, Eid-ul-Adha is very important to her and she shouldn't have to chose between her grade and her celebration of her religious holiday. The response she received after that was very rude.

He did say he’d allow her an excused absence (after giving her a lecture on how, in his class, class attendance does correlate with exam performance), but he also provided her with another bout of unsolicited advice on how she should observe her Islamic faith.

“You may not know it, but Jesus actually advised his followers (the early Christians) not to attend church service for religious reasons,” he added. “I do not know what advice Mohammed has given, but I know that Jesus would have advised you to skip the religious service and to learn, because that is what God was us to do according to Jesus.”

FORREALLL!?!?!?!? Since when do math teachers teach Muslim theology, AT THE SAME TIME? 

What would you do? I know I wouldn't handle it so well. 

xoxo, Kaila