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.