Monday, September 13, 2004
Great Adventure's Muslims-only day
Theme park's Islam-exclusive event draws fire, anticipates 10,000 Friday
Posted: September 13, 2004
10:38 p.m. Eastern
By Aaron Klein
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
Apopular North American amusement park is scheduled to host a "Great
Muslim Adventure Day" this week in which the park will be open only to
Muslims, drawing fire from various monitor groups, WorldNetDaily has
learned.
The Muslim Youth Division of the
Islamic Circle of North
America and the
Muslim American Society, two of the largest Muslim organizations in
America, have arranged exclusive use of Six Flags Great Adventure in
Jackson, NJ, for the entire day Friday.
The ICNA website boasts, "First Time Ever – All Day – Entire Park
Exclusively for Muslims!"
The event is designed to "provide entertainment for the entire
family!"says the site. Imam Zaid Shakir will lead the Friday afternoon
prayers at 2 p.m., the comedy routine "Allah Made Me Funny" will show
twice,Comedian Azhar Usman will perform, and "Alhamdulillah, the entire
park is reserved for Muslims only!"
The organization expects more than 10,000 Muslims.
Debbie Nauser, vice president of public relations for the Six Flags
theme park, confirmed the park would be open only for "Muslims and their
friends."
Six Flags
has previously hosted other event days, including an annual Passover
theme in which the park is predominantly filled with Orthodox Jews, but
the venue is still open to outsiders and seasonal ticket holders, and
organizers of previous events have never claimed exclusivity of the
park.
"The exclusionary nature of the event, which disallows anyone but
Muslims from being present on the fairgrounds, raises questions about
the legality of permitting only members of one faith in what is a public
venue," said Beila Rabinowitz, director of Militant Islam Monitor.
"Militant Islam Monitor calls on the management of Six Flags amusement
park to disallow this discrimination on its property. And MIM calls on
the State of New Jersey to cancel this 'Muslims Only' event."
Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum, said "it is scandalous
that Six Flags – a publicly held corporation whose stock trades on the
NYSE– allows such a restriction for access to its property. It's fine
for a Muslim organization to sponsor a day at the theme park, it's quite
another to proclaim it for Muslims only, as ICNA does. "
The ICNA has drawn much controversy to itself in recent years.
WorldNetDaily attended a conference in Orlando, Fla., sponsored in part
by the ICNA, which featured a main speaker who voiced empathy and
support for suicide bombers, denied Muslims were involved in
9-11,characterized the war on terror as a conspiratorial Zionist plot
designed to destroy Islam and Muslims, and blamed attacks on affirmative
action on "the rise of the Jewish cracker."
Judicial Watch says the ICNA
has ties to Hamas, and terrorism expert Steve Emerson stated: "The
ICNA's hatred of the Jews is so fierce that it taunted them with a
repetition of what Hitler did to them."
Inhis book, "American Jihad," Emerson writes: "The ICNA openly supports
militant Islamic fundamentalist organizations, praises terror attacks,
issues incendiary attacks on Western values and policies, and supports
the imposition of Sharia [Islamic code of law]."
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Aaron Klein is WorldNetDaily's
special Middle East correspondent, whose past interview subjects have
included Yasser Arafat, Ehud Barak, Shlomo BenAmi and leaders of the
Taliban.
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