Posted on 06/30/2006 8:58:59 PM PDT by Stoat
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Muslim-only Alton Towers |
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By GUY PATRICK and ANDY RUSSELL BRITAINS biggest fun park has sparked a race row with a MUSLIMS-ONLY day. Up to 28,000 are expected at Alton Towers on September 17 when there will be no music, booze or gambling. Instead there will be prayer areas, Muslim stalls and all food served will be HALAL. Organisers Islamic Leisure have billed it the First National Muslim Fun Day and tickets can only be bought through their website. Non-Muslims phoning the Staffordshire park have been refused tickets. One, George Hughes, 19, who rang up for 15 tickets for a pals birthday, said: I couldnt believe it.
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Its the only day we can go, yet I cant because Im not Muslim. Can you imagine all the fuss if there was a Christians-only day?
George, of Crayford, Kent, added: My Muslim friends think its outrageous.
Whats the world coming to when people are being banned from flying the St Georges flag yet this sort of day is allowed? If it must be held, then why not on a weekday rather than a busy weekend?
The event is widely promoted on the internet and the Muslim Public Affairs Committee declared it exclusively for our brothers and sisters.
Logo ... biggest fun park |
But some Muslims have condemned the idea. One university student on a Muslim website forum said: Its hardly encouraging integration.
Another said: What next . . . an all Muslims shopping day out in the Trafford Centre in Manchester?
Abid Hussan of Islamic Leisure insisted the day was open to all faiths, although Islamic laws would apply.
He added: There will be no smoking, no alcohol and halal food only.
Were trying to get Muslims to go to this day because they wouldnt normally go somewhere like Alton Towers. Were trying to integrate Muslims into the wider community. People can come down and see the way we live. It will be a peaceful family environment.
Alton Towers said any organisation could hire the park for a day.
A spokeswoman said We make no distinction regarding sexuality, religious, ethnic or lifestyle choices.
She confirmed tickets for the day were now available only through Islamic Leisure. And Alton Towers would promote the fact that the day had been booked.
She added: As a general rule, there will be no admission on the day to guests who have not booked through the organisation in advance.
She was seven...
I think you did a perfect job. Any more and it wouldn't be as good.
There's just enough that one isn't quite sure it's a parody...
YOU GUYS MUST HAVE SELECTIVE READING
"Technically, its open to all. Except theres no music or booze, only halal food will be available.." POST 1
They Booked It
It's the image that counts. If someone booked a "whites only" day and said "Technically, its open to all. Except theres only polka music and lutfish will be available.." what would you think?
She was seven...
How did he avoid the baby in the crib?
Liddle attacks Alton Muslim day
http://www.blogistan.co.uk/blog/
Technorati Tags: rod liddle, alton towers, the spectator
Rod Liddle has dedicated his "Liddle Britain" column this week in the Spectator (free registration required, but paywalled after a week) to slagging off the upcoming "Muslim day" at Alton Towers, the leisure park in the English Midlands, organised by Islamic Leisure. Liddle obviously thinks the reason this event is taking place is because Muslims don't like rubbing shoulders with non-Muslims:
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But we may have read Alton Towers wrongly; there may be mischief at work, which is why I invoked the name of Dajjal above. Because apart from setting aside a day in September for Muslims who don?t wish to mix with the filthy Kufr hordes, they have also set aside a day in September for homosexuals. Poofs ? to use the politically incorrect nomenclature ? who don?t like sharing their big dippers with heterosexuals will be allowed a whole day to themselves. And ? here?s the thing ? they haven?t yet decided which day will be allocated to the gays. What if it, too, is 17 September? A joyous, inclusive, joint event ? Buggery?n? Burkas. The muezzin wail on the PA system interrupted every so often by a quick medley from Cabaret or the Weather Girls. An area, near the waltzers, set aside for stoning the sodomites. Prayer mats and prophylactics. Amyl nitrate and Abu Hamza. Everywhere you look ? a handlebar moustache or a bushy beard, a leather basque or a chador.
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The fact of the matter (as I found out by phoning the number on IL's Opening Times & Pricing page) is that the event is not restricted to Muslims only - or at least, if I wanted to bring any non-Muslim family or friends along, I'm more than welcome as brother Yaseen assured me. So it's really nothing to do with "dirty kuffar", or "kufrs" as Liddle insists on saying, at all. It's more likely to be about ensuring that Muslims, especially women, can have a fun family day out without having their boundaries infringed unintentionally, for example by being given a ride car to sit in with a totally strange man.
I suspect some may think this contrary to some goal of integration, but at the end of the day Alton Towers is a privately-owned resort, not a public space at all, and the owners (Tussauds) are perfectly within their rights to allow Muslims, or whoever else wants to, to book it if the money is right. If someone else is inconvienienced or for some other reason doesn't like it, tough - it's not their park!
The snippet you provided was quite amusing, thanks :-) It reminds me of the stories that the troops would relate from early on in the Afghanistan campaign, where their greatest fears included the simpering, ultrafeminine and garishly made-up homosexuals that would accost them in a disgustingly personal manner when they would enter remote villages, further highlighting the seemingly endless contradictions within Islam.
As to the rest, several posters to this thread have taken umbrage to what they perceive as some suggesting that Alton Towers shouldn't be "allowed" to rent out their facility to a Muslim organization, and how they are perfectly within their "rights" to do so.
This baffles me somewhat as I have not noticed any poster or news writer suggesting this. Nobody that I have read on this issue has suggested that Alton Towers be somehow prevented by law or any other means in renting their facility to anyone they want. What I have seen, on the other hand, are people questioning the wisdom of the Muslim community in doing this, as it projects an aura of isolation to the rest of us. Indeed, you'll find posters to Islamic websites, ostensibly Muslims themselves, objecting to it in that they don't believe that it's the right way to build bridges between communities that suffer from a mutual distrust and animosity at times.
The issue might be compared to the social flareups that occur whenever the Nazis or Klanners decide to have a march or rally or whatever stupid thing they do. No sane person really wants them to do what they do but at the same time nobody is seriously suggesting that they be prevented from holding their rally either (which is usually outnumbered by protesters by a ratio of about 200 to 1)as they understand that at least in the USA we value freedom of speech, which includes unpleasant speech at times (although these standards quite often don't apply to Christians, but don't get me started on that).
Although I usually recoil whenever people try to speak for me, I think that I may safely suggest that at least most here who may not be rallying to the cause of the Muslims in this case are not necessarliy suggesting that they shouldn't be allowed to rent out Alton Towers, they are merely registering a great surprise at what many consider to be a profound PR blunder, one which some in the Muslim organization are apparently trying to spin in a more favorable way by telling callers that it's not "technically" a Muslim-only day, although we will see how nicely non-Muslims are treated when they enter Alton Towers on September 17th.
I think that I may safely suggest that at least most here who may not be rallying to the cause of the Muslims in this case are not necessarliy suggesting that they shouldn't be allowed to rent out Alton Towers, they are merely registering a great surprise at what many consider to be a profound PR blunder,
Hello, ACLU?"
"Yes, I've been refused tickets to the Alton Towers."
"Well, they said it was because I'm not a Muslim."
"No, I'm Christian."
"Hello? Hello?"
3 posted on 06/30/2006 11:09:30 PM CDT by MAexile (Bats left, votes right)
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My phone call to Alton Towers:
"Hello i understand a Muslim only day has been organised?"
"Thats right"
"Well i work with the BNP and i would like to set up a White only day"
*Click*
"Hello..."
My My My. How very clever of you.
There will be no smoking, no alcohol and halal food only.
Sounds fun. /sarc.
"Hello, ACLU?"
Although you may have said this as a joke, but don't you know this is Great Britain and not America? I can't see the ACLU getting involved in this or even being allowed to.
It's not exactly my idea of a good time (any "party" without beer or whisky, steaks, cigars and vivacious ladies is simply not a party) but I'm guessing that the segregationists who are putting on this thing will revel in the joyful one-dimensionality of it all.
Yes it was a joke, and I don't put anything past them. Do you?
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