The most logical solution for the school issue is to not give any days off for religious holidays, but simply excuse absences if a child's religious views requires him to go to a religious event on a school day. Of course, that makes too much sense.

Note to Mike. They aren't closing the school for every single holiday. They are closing them only for two Islamic holidays as compared to a plethora of Christian holidays. If you are so worried about whether schools will be opened, why not reduce the time for Christmas and Easter and Good Friday?

Dunno whether the Turkish gameshow will convert anybody, but that's some pretty painless ecumenical education in an unexpected venue. Wherever 'twas I first read about it, the burning question was "Yes, but will the winner have to wait through a commercial break to come forward and accept Jeebus [or whoever]?"

I'm with Rabi and/or Texas Aggie. Either get rid of all religious holidays (and be ready for the screeching and the fainting on the right), or just allow kids to miss school whenever they have a religious holiday. Of course, that's not so pragmatic over Christmas and such, but it's workable.

It's disheartening to read that even a small measure like this to give faiths outside of the Judeo-Christian rubric is being argued at all.

Giving televangelists a bad name? You mean they ever had a good name to start with?

It's way past time to revoke all religious tax exemptions. See how many of these christianist scam enterprises survive if they have to pay their own freight taxwise.

RE: the school holidays. The winter break makes sense since so many religions have holidays around then due to their pagan roots and the solstice.

Otherwise, start treating them like many work places. Give each student so many floating holidays per year to use as they or their parents see fit.

Steve Benen wrote: "Reader R.K. alerted me to a very strange new gameshow in Turkey in which a Muslim imam, a Christian priest, a rabbi, and a Buddhist monk try to convert a group of atheists."

The Buddhist has an unfair advantage, since Buddhism does not teach or require any belief in God, or in anything "supernatural" for that matter, and thus is entirely compatible with atheism.

Just adding that holidays don't just affect students. If you do or don't give off days also affects your teaching staff -- and requiring or not requiring them to work on the holidays. The just let them stay home and excuse it doesn't work quite as well for employees of schools.

You see, the problem with religious holidays (or religious shrines in public places) is that, in this country, you really *should* include everyone. The argument that "If you close the schools for every single holiday, there won't be any school" is the kind of thing you should think about before declaring the *first* religious holiday. And then the idea of religious holidays should be scrapped altogether. Fair's fair, as Billy Jean would say.

While it seems mildly insulting to Athiests (why not make everybody have to convert equally sized groups made up 1/3rd Muslins, 1/3rd Buddhists, 1/3rd Chirstans and 1/3rd Jews leaving out whichever third you already belong to) though I imagine that that Turkish Gameshow would be pretty interesting to watch.

In the vein of making sure everybody is offended might I present another idea whatever station wants it "Creationists say the darndest things" Over the course of which we'll get to watch people who don't believe in evolution be questioned by highly respected biologists and explain how the world only came around 6,000 years ago and why fossils, and carbon dating, are just figments of our imagination before a live audience. Who would watch that?

About that Turkish game show. Does it really exist or is it just a publicity stunt.

A little googling shows that the CEO of the recently estabished tv channel Kanal T is Seyhan Soylu, a famous transsexual known as "Sisi".

"Another televangelist giving his profession a bad name"

Umm, is that even possible? It's not like the profession ever had a good name to ruin. What he's doing is exactly what you'd expect him to do. This is what televangelism is, just another scam. Did PT Barnum sully his name when he said there was a sucker born every minute? No. He just told the truth. And every televangelist has taken PT Barnum's words to heart.

As for the Turkish game show, I'm all for it. It should be fun. My issue is that they left out the third largest religion in the world, Hinduism. And they included a relatively irrelevant religion, Judaism. There are more Sikhs than Jews. Judaism isn't even a Top Ten religion. What's so special about Judaism that they always get special treatment?

What's so special about Judaism that they always get special treatment? -- fostert, @19:11

They're the *chosen people*, for goodness sake! Sorry, fostert, but you just walked into this one :)

A letter from Ted Kennedy? I'm sure the Pontiff is thrilled to hear what a lapsed Catholic has to say.

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It's all about the Buddhist Cathedrals & Christian Pagodas, here in the Aloha State...
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Why not take a survey or even a vote of school parents on what religious holidays are taken? Naturally the school board should limit the total number of holidays. Presumably the vote could be taken every few years or so as holiday fashions change. (Halloween has become increasingly popular for example) Why must all these decisions be made arbitrarily in a top down fashion?

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