A theme park was forced to shut its gates to visitors when a mass brawl broke out after Muslim women were banned from rides unless they removed their headscarves.
Two park rangers were hospitalised and 15 people were arrested in the scuffle at Rye Playland in New York yesterday.
The theme park was crowded with around 6,000 visitors. Roughly 3,000 were in a Muslim tour group celebrating a holiday at the end of Ramadan.
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Rye Playland: A ban on wearing head coverings on rides at a theme park sparked a mass brawl that saw two park rangers hospitalised and 15 people arrested
The incident reportedly started when women wearing Muslim hijab scarves tried to get on rides banning any head coverings.
Scuffles broke out after women became furious at not being allowed on rides with their religious head covering and started to argue with park staff, before rangers stepped.
The park entrance was closed for two hours as the fighting escalated.
Ola Salem, 17, of Brooklyn, New York, was wearing a headscarf and said she was denied entry onto a ride with her eight-year-old sister.
'They said no because my of my "headgear",' she told the New York Times. 'I said: "It’s not my headgear, it’s my religion".'
However park officials said the ban was for safety reasons and they respect their customers' religious beliefs.
'Everybody got mad, everybody got upset,' Amr Khater, of Brooklyn, told The Journal News. 'It’s our holiday. Why would you do this to us?'
The women were offered refunds - but then male and female visitors started to argue among themselves, Westchester County officials said.
That apparently led to park guards stepping in.
'[The guards] were beating down the girls, then they started beating down the guys as they came to their aid,' Lola Ali, 16, of Queens, told the Journal News.
Unhappy: The brawl reportedly started when women wearing Muslim hijab scarves tried to get on rides banning any head coverings for safety reasons
Two intervening park rangers were injured and hospitalised. A huge police response then saw 60 patrol cars arrive from nine departments.
The Muslim American Society of New York had been advised of the rule many times before its tour took place, parks official Peter Tartaglia said.
'We respect the religious purpose of wearing it, but we have several rides that you cannot go on with any sort of headgear'
Parks official Peter Tartaglia
Parks official Peter Tartaglia
He defended the policy against head coverings on rides for safety reasons and faulted the group for not ensuring visitors understood the policy.
Mr Tartaglia said the policy is for safety, as scarves can become entangled in mechanical parts, choke riders or fly off and land in a ride's tracks.
‘We respect the religious purpose of wearing it, but we have several rides that you cannot go on with any sort of headgear,’ he said.
‘The misunderstanding was very unfortunate,’ Mr Tartaglia told Fox News.
Official line: Police said the women were offered refunds - but then visitors started to argue among themselves and that's when the fight started
The park entrance was closed for two hours as police responded to the scene, where more than 6,000 people were inside at the time - half of whom were with the Muslim group.
Mr Tartaglia said all the people arrested were later released.
'They said no because my of my "headgear". I said: "It’s not my headgear, it’s my religion"'
Ola Salem, 17
The celebration at the theme park, located just north of New York City, was for Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Islam's holy month of fasting, Ramadan.
Rye Playland, owned and run by Westchester County, is America's only government-owned amusement park, reported Fox News.
A spokesman for the Muslim American Society of New York said it plans to investigate what happened.
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When will people wake up to the fact that Muslims DO NOT fit in to our way if life. You can bet pretty soon they will force all rides that don't allow head scarfs to be shut down. They are already trying to ban smoking, drinking, music, the mixing of the sexies, the banning of nightclubs and pubs, and before long it will be the theam parks.
Muslims are trying to take the enjoyment out of everything as they make their move to take over our way of life, but people still walk round with their eyes closed or turn a blind eye to them. Not only that but the governments are allowing them to destroy everything that stands in their way.
Wake up people, or very soon they will be flying the flag of Islam over the White House [ Obama is a Muslim in the white house already] and it will be flying over 10 Downing Street, and you will see public hangings, beheadings, the chopping off of hands and and feet. Your young daughters will be taken from you to be married, you will be exicuted if you do not turn to Islam. The choice is in your hands.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2032031/Ramadan-brawl-Rye-Playland-theme-park-Muslim-women-banned-rides.html#ixzz1Wbi5xVSb
