SACRAMENTO — California is preparing to write two Islamic holy days into state law at the same moment Christian parents and churches keep winning only after years of lawsuits. That contrast is not a coincidence. It is how a political class stays necessary: pick a favored faith to celebrate, pick another to manage, then spend tax dollars “fixing” the fight it helped create.
Assembly Bill 2017 would add Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha to California’s official holiday list. State workers could use holiday credit to take the days off. Public schools and community colleges could close and teach “the meaning and importance” of the festivals. The Assembly passed it 64-1. The Senate sent it to Gov. Gavin Newsom. CAIR-California, a co-sponsor, immediately demanded his signature. Newsom has already issued Eid greetings as governor. The bill sits in the same pipeline that recently added Diwali.
Christians in the same state have spent Newsom’s tenure in court. COVID rules banned or capped indoor worship while secular businesses stayed open until the Supreme Court intervened. Home Bible studies were limited to three households until Tandon v. Newsom. AB 1955 tried to stop schools from telling parents when a child’s “gender identity” changed; in Mirabelli v. Bonta the Supreme Court said those parents were likely to win, and the Ninth Circuit later blocked key parts of the statute. Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapters lost campus recognition over faith-based leadership rules until a federal court restored them.
Christmas is still on the calendar. That is not the same as equal treatment. One faith gets new official holidays and model classroom exercises. The other gets injunctions.
Critics say the division is the product. If churches, parents, and mosques were left alone under the same First Amendment, Sacramento would have less to broker. Discord keeps the fixer employed. Newsom’s government does not have to “hate Christians” to sideline them. It only has to treat their worship as a public-health problem, their parenting as a notification risk, and someone else’s festivals as diversity policy — then mail the bill to taxpayers.
A republic can honor many holy days. It cannot pretend that one community’s rights are a celebration while another’s are a lawsuit.
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