Stephanie Keith for The New York Times
Muslim Youth Day participants hit the rides at Six Flags Great Adventure, in Jackson, N.J., after midday prayer Friday.
Posted on 09/18/2004 5:14:39 AM PDT by Pharmboy
Stephanie Keith for The New York Times
Muslim Youth Day participants hit the rides at Six Flags Great Adventure, in Jackson, N.J., after midday prayer Friday.
JACKSON, N.J., Sept. 17 - It may have been Aqsa Khan's first visit to Six Flags Great Adventure, but she knew enough to hustle over to the park's largest roller coaster as soon as the midday prayer ended.
"I thought I was going to die," said Ms. Khan, a sophomore at New York University, upon exiting the Nitro, the mile-long roller coaster that drops 230 feet at about 85 miles per hour.
Accompanied by a half-dozen classmates, Ms. Khan was among the estimated 15,000 Muslims who came out for Muslim Youth Day on Friday, when the Great Adventure theme park was set aside for Muslims from as far away as Massachusetts and North Carolina. Many of the children were off from school, since public schools in New York City, Philadelphia and much of New Jersey were closed for Rosh Hoshanah.
"It's nice to see so many here," said Ms. Khan's friend Maheen Farooqi, a junior from Long Island. "I haven't really been around so many Muslims at one time before."
Shaista Barch, who was waiting in line at the giant swing ride with some of the 50 relatives who joined her here, concurred. "It's a good Muslim day," she said.
Yet Muslim Youth Day, intended as a day of relaxation and morale boosting, has not been a thoroughly smooth ride. The last week has been fraught with threats and racial epithets lobbed at the Islamic Circle of North America, the group that rented the park for the event, and the corporate offices of Six Flags Great Adventure.
Kristin Siebeneicher, Six Flags's spokeswoman, said she spent the week in interviews with radio performers from New Jersey, California, Colorado, Texas and Oklahoma who wanted to know why the park was turning its rides over to Muslims and shutting everyone else out for the day.
"The concerns are that they believe the event is exclusionary," Ms. Siebeneicher said. "I don't think most people understood it was a day we're closed anyway, and we were not taking something away from the public to give to a private group."
In the spring and fall, Six Flags is open only on weekends, and the park is often rented out to groups on weekdays, Ms. Siebeneicher said. She added that the National Conference of Synagogue Youth regularly rented the park for a day, as well as the Catholic Youth Rally and an organization of home-schooled children.
Earlier this week, the words "for Muslims only" were removed from the sponsor's Internet advertisement for the event. Adem Carroll, a relief coordinator and spokesman for Islamic Circle of North America, said the event was never intended to exclude others, particularly because many of its members are in mixed families, with Muslims and non-Muslims. The intent instead was to provide a protected environment for those seeking to relax.
"A lot of people don't feel safe going on another day," Mr. Carroll said. "Because of our dress standards, they might be afraid of being taunted. There's a lot of hostility out there."
Raza Farrukh, chairman of the organization's local chapter and chief coordinator of the event, said some people who bought the discounted $20 passes were concerned for their safety.
Stephanie Keith for The New York Times
Most at the park gathered on plastic tarps for midday prayer Friday, and three less formal prayer sessions were scheduled
throughout the day. Six Flag held off on its Halloween decorations, at the sponsor's request.
On Thursday, the F.B.I. brought in bomb-sniffing dogs to do a full sweep of the park, said Mr. Farrukh, who sent out a mass e-mail message to ticketholders earlier in the week informing them of added security. The park brought in not only the Jackson Township police but also a contingent of F.B.I. agents for the day.
Ms. Siebeneicher said that the most disturbing thing about the questions she fielded about the event was the implication that Six Flags was playing host to a terrorist-friendly organization.
She said one talk show host asked if the company would rent the park to Nazis. The park's guest services phone lines and the company's corporate offices in Oklahoma were flooded by callers asking Six Flags to reverse its decision and threatening to boycott or sue the park.
"It's truly sad and very unfortunate that people feel that way," she said. "This is America. Six Flags doesn't discriminate against race, religion or sexual orientation. We're not about politics."
Nevertheless, Six Flags did run an additional F.B.I. check on the sponsoring group, despite the fact that they had rented the park to the group twice before.
In fact, the last time Muslim Youth Day took place here was just three days before the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
Farhan Pervez, the secretary of Islamic Circle of North America, said his group, based in Queens, decided to skip the event the last two years because "we didn't want to be in a festive mood around that anniversary."
When talks resumed with Six Flags last winter to bring the event back, the group sought to book a day in a month other than September, but were told that Friday was the only day available, Mr. Pervez said.
Most of those who came to Friday's event - while highly sensitive to the bias against Muslims, often brought on by their style of dress - were unaware of this week's controversy.
"Of course we are looked at," said Bayan Adileh, a 14-year-old from North Bergen, N.J., wearing a black and white scarf covering her head. "People wonder why we are outside our house. You learn to ignore it."
While most of the women at the event complied with some version of the dress code, or hijab, fully covering their bodies and heads, standards were somewhat loosened for the men, many of whom were admitted in shorts and T-shirts.
With rides scheduled to open at 3 p.m., the lines to enter the park grew slow and long by early afternoon, as the security force raked through pocketbooks, backpacks and baby strollers. With the crowd growing antsy, the park added security guards at 2:30 p.m. to speed up the entry process.
After waiting two hours to get in, Yassar Abraham and his family headed straight to the picnic area, where halal dishes like samosas, biryani and buttered chicken replaced the usual burgers and fries.
Before racing off to their favorite rides, most gathered for the midday prayer. Giant blue plastic tarps were spread across the pavement in front of Fort Independence, where men knelt facing east during the hourlong sermon. Behind them, women lined more blue tarps on the ground beside Bluebeard's Lost Treasure Train. Three other less formal prayer sessions were scheduled throughout the day.
Six Flags would usually have had its Halloween decorations up by now, but the park honored the sponsor's request to hold off hanging skeletons, witches and ghosts, which Mr. Farrukh said were viewed as idols by some Muslims.
Most of the park's shops and concessions were closed, and those that were open were not too busy. Much more active was the open-air bazaar outside the Batman and Robin roller coaster, where shoppers could buy a new gown, scarf or prayer rug.
Youssra Kamal of Matawan, N.J., was doing a brisk business in scarves, head pieces and sleeve extensions. "It's difficult to get these around here," Ms. Kamal said. "We're trying to do something that looks fashionable and elegant, but still is religious."
After three years of lying low, most of those who came to Six Flags on Friday were happy to have Muslim Youth Day back on the calendar.
"A lot of Muslims are scared to have big gatherings," Ms. Farooqi said. "They're afraid to be in the public eye. If something goes wrong again, they don't want to be there. But we need to do this kind of thing. It's time."
So, if they were Nazis, you would be OK with that, right?
Islam is a politival ideology that calls for the removal of everything that is not Islam. Period. That includes you, your parents, your cousins, your KIDS (witness Russia).
Islam is worse than Naziism, worse than Communism, worse than Fascism, worse than Satan-worship (although it is akin).
There may be a billion of them, but they are mostly ignorant savages who have zero influence on anything. If we could stamp out Islam as an ideology it would dissaoear in 2 generations. THAT should be our goal.
thats fine, I see where you are going. But I have read parts of the Koran (I had a minor in religious history-big deal for me!) and we are talking about AMERICAN muslims-not the nuts in parts of the middle east! It just is nasty to me to joke about killing Americans just because they are muslims-I know you did not write that but some posts have implied it...It does feel weird defending muslims when I often rage against them....I just draw the line when it comes to blanket statements against Americans. There are some good ones out there...although it pisses me off that their leaders are not more vocal...but why call that an ok for terrorism on the part of normal muslims....
I had a talk with a guy who is muslim (works with my wife), he is from Lebanon-came here a while ago, had a couple scotches together-he does like to drink! He loves America, explained to me that there are so many parts of the middle east that hate the fanatical muslims. The more well to do areas like the west, in fact he does hate Syria and is totally convinced WMD's are there and that his former country is itching to fight back against them-he also points out how the younger generation in Iran hates the Mullahs and their fascist tactics and really likes the west.
He believes that our action in Iraq will work out to be what the middle east needs- a divide and weakening of the goverments of Syria and Iran. Driving a wedge between them is a great step. In Lebanon and other areas people party, wear what they want, (by the way-my wife will not be happy with this but his wife is VERY nice looking and she wears VERY nice outfits!!! No covering up skin here!) He feels that the Koran has been twisted so much that it has lost much of its true meaning. I asked him about the Koran and hate and he replied that passages may make some veiled references to intolerance but it mainly comes from companion history books that are seized upon by radicals looking for excuses to inflame the masses.
Hey one inebriated talk with a muslim won't change the world...but....
agreed!
BS-you are a jerk! I LOST A FAMILY MEMBER IN 9/11 AND I HAVE A BROTHER IN THE AIR FORCE. HOW DARE YOU LABLE ME A DEM JUST BECAUSE I DON'T ADVOCATE HATRED OF A WHOLE RACE OF PEOPLE. YOU HAVE NO IDEAS HOW MUCH OF A CONSERVATIVE I AM....I WILL GO UP AGAINST YOU OR ANYONE IN CONSERVATIVE IDEOLOGY AND KNOWLEDGE....YOU'RE BIGOTRY AGAINST ANYONE WHO DOES NOT AGREE WITH YOU IS APPARENT..OH MAN-I FEEL LIKE HAVING A ZEL MILLER DUEL!!!!!
THEY ARE AT THE AMUSEMENT PARK YOU DOLT!
Pardon my shouting. But that is what this whole story is about. SHEESH!
Calm down a-hole (I can say this since you started the name calling). You want to defend the death cult, keep on doing it. You know nothing.
Whew...I'm outta-I'll go and set my fantasy football lineup instead of taking part in this anymore!
"Sensible muslims" is oxymoronic. I'll wait here while you look that term up (PB waiting...)
Don't let the door hit you in your *ss as you leave...Buh-bye.
The Koran is much of the problem --- Mohammed himself was not at all a tolerant man -- he slaughted many Jews and Christians himself.
I know many Muslims are just mere followers --- get rid of the imans and many would gladly join up with a different religion. Many aren't all that comfortable with the Koran --- but to deny the terrorists aren't following it is absurd --- they are the ones who take it for it's word.
you know whats funny about this is all I tried doing was pointing out that American Muslims are not ALL bad and need to be exterminated. Thanks for the A-HOLE comment!! Would you not bristle when you're conservative views are called into question by someone using death cult phrases.
I love free republic and hate the idea that we sometimes nail each other over things...but how do you really know I know nothing or even fully diagree with you..
read this slowly....I want us to stamp out our enemies here and abroad..I just can't sensibly see advocating hating or killing those families in the picture because of 9/11...damn I just don't like being labled something I'm not..and I did have a right to be a little pissed.....!
Islam isn't a race it's an ideology. When we fought Nazism, it wasn't a race we were fighting even though they thought they were the master race and were a German type people. German == Arab, Nazi == Muslim. Not all Middle Easterners are Muslims --- not all Muslims are Middle Easterners just as not all Germans were Nazis and not all Nazis were Germans.
Are all American Nazis or all American KKK bad?
Back again! you definately got those keyboard muscles working-please grow up and understand that posting on a site does not make you God's gift to the conservative movement-how childish you are!
You seem overly sensitve on behalf of the Muslims...my point stated over and over is that the "reasonable" Muslims have never stood up and expressed outrage at the terrorists.
And, where did I advocate killing them all, anyway?
Even worse, the prime commandment of the Koran is to emulate his life. Muhammad is called the finest example of human existence. The liberal Muslims gravitate to the nicer part of Mohamed's life while the Jihadis embrace the violent latter half of Muhammad's life. The violent verses of the Koran supercede (render to inferior status) the earlier kindly verses. Have more scriptural superiority.
Of course!!! My God this is getting a bit weird- Nazis and KKK are all wrong-American Muslims are not ALL bad
What did she mean, 'if something goes wrong again we don't want to be there...' Is she referring to 9/11? If so, she should remember who hijacked those planes and danced in the streets with delight at 3000 dead. The woman is a useful idiot. I hope the FBI took lots of pictures on Muslim Day.
Methinks you're projecting...and spellcheck is your friend.
Indeed--I hope the FBI and Immigration were very active on that day. I wonder how many sleeper agents were at the park that day?
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