Muslims furious over a head-scarf ban at Rye Playland got into a brawl with security yesterday. 15 people were arrested. The Rye Playland would not allow women in headscarves on certain rides due to safety concerns. This did not go over too well with the Muslims.
As upset families started lining up for refunds at the gate at around 2:30 p.m. after being informed of the scarf policy, they started fighting among themselves. This prompted parks guards to intervene, and things got only wilder as cops arrived.
The New York Post reported:
A group of Muslims furious over a head-scarf ban at Rye Playland got into a brawl with security yesterday that resulted in 15 arrests, authorities said.
Westchester officials who run the amusement park blamed the Queens tour operator who organized the outing celebrating the end of Ramadan, saying he failed to tell the 3,000 members of the Muslim American Society of New York who made the trip that, out of safety concerns, scarves are not permitted on some of the site’s most popular rides.
As irked families started lining up for refunds at the gate at around 2:30 p.m. after being informed of the policy, they started fighting among themselves, said county parks Deputy Commissioner Peter Tartaglia.That prompted parks guards to intervene, and things got only wilder as cops arrived, witnesses said.
“[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.
Sharif Aly, the lawyer for the Muslim American Society, which is based in Brooklyn, said, “There is a lot of misinformation out there.
“It was meant to be a day of celebration and community.”
Tartaglia said most of the people in the group were from Brooklyn.
