IRAQIS: SATURDAYS OFF - TOO JEWISH!!!

Iraq's Muslims want no part of 'Jewish holiday'
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraqis are complaining about their first weekend break, and some high schoolers even went to class Saturday to protest a decision introducing a second weekly day off that coincides with the Jewish Sabbath. It's not that the Iraqis do not want time off -- they just want the extra day moved to Thursday. ''We don't want Saturday! It's a Jewish holiday!'' students chanted as they marched in protest last week to the governor's office in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

A high schooler pulled out a hand grenade and started waving it, and police fired into the air to disperse the crowd. At least three students reportedly were injured in the ensuing scuffle. At Baghdad's University of Mustansariyah, a statement issued by a student union thought to be allied with radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called Saturday ''the Zionist holiday'' and said the government order should not be followed.

''We declare a general strike in the University of Mustansariyah to reject this decision and any decision aimed at depriving Iraqis of their identity,'' the statement said. In predominantly Sunni Muslim Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, the al-Mutawakal high school opened its doors after insurgents threatened to kill its teachers if they took the day off. There is no clear-cut rule for weekends in the Middle East. Lebanon's weekend starts at 11:30 a.m. Friday and includes Sunday. In Jordan, the weekend is Friday and Saturday. Bahrain, Egypt and Kuwait have Thursday and Friday off, while conservative Iran and Saudi Arabia only give Friday off.
In Shiite-dominated Sadr City, students and civil servants ignored the decree. At Sadr City's al-Fazilah secondary girls school, all 400 girls showed up for class.

''We can't be like Jews," sixth-grader Nada Alwan said. "I hope the government listens to us.''