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Camel Nose Grows -- Muslim woman cites gym after interrupted prayer
DEARBORN -- Fitness USA, a gym chain, is investigating an alleged civil rights violation involving a local Muslim woman who says her afternoon prayer was interrupted by a fellow patron, and that her complaint to management about the situation was rejected. "The manager told me, 'You have to respect her (the patron), but she does not have to respect your God,'" said Wardeh Sultan of Dearborn. "I've had my membership for seven or eight years, and I've never had a problem with praying there. Who the hell goes to a gym to pray? Where would you pray? In the weight room? On a Nautilus? "I told that manager, 'I can't believe you said that'" Sultan said. I can. If I go to her mosque are they going to accomodate my workout? "Honestly, I feel humiliated and I feel ashamed, right now, to go back to Fitness USA." What she should be feeling is stoopid. Local representatives of Fitness USA, which operates branches throughout Metro Detroit and in two other states, referred all inquiries regarding the matter to their corporate offices. "We will, as we will with any complaint involving our staff and a member, be doing a full and thorough investigation of the matter and take any appropriate action we need to take," said Jodi Berry, executive director of Fitness USA. "We want every member to get a good exercise experience every time they come to the club." Since when does a "good exercise experience" involve a good pray? Berry said she learned of the complaint on Monday. The allegations are among a series of recent complaints by Muslims who say they are free to practice their religion in the United States, until someone tells them they cannot. Recently, the same Fitness USA facility enacted a new dress code to allow Muslim women to wear more modest clothing, in compliance with some Islamic practices. I go to Gold's Gym. I don't think they have a dress code. Two weeks ago, six Muslim clerics were removed from a U.S. Airways flight after three of them said their evening prayers in the St. Paul-Minneapolis International Airport. How many situps did they do? Passengers and employees of the airline said later that their suspicions were aroused when the men were overheard making comments critical of the United States, and because the men had one-way tickets and no baggage. The airline and the civil rights office of U.S. Department of Homeland Security are investigating that incident. Sure sounds like a setup. I suspect the gym incident is, too. Imad Hamad, regional director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, which lodged a formal complaint with Fitness USA on behalf of Sultan, said the recent spate of conflicts results from a growing intolerance of Islam and a growing restiveness among Muslims that their rights to speak freely and worship are increasingly at risk. Seems more like they represent a feeling of the oats by the turban and automatic weapons crowd.  "They (Muslims) are resenting that they are to be suppressed from expressing themselves freely, like others," Hamad said. "It's OK for a Christian fellow or a Jewish fellow to pray, and it would be regarded highly and respected. I can't recall ever having seen a Christian or a Jew praying at Gold's Gym. I did see a Catholic genuflect once, but that was after he walked into something dangling off a Nautilus machine. He was back on his feet in less than half an hour. "When it comes to a person of Muslim faith, especially if a woman is wearing the head cover or a man with a typical clergy outfit, yeah, it is becoming like something that is offensive to people and making them nervous." No. I think it's the ostentatious arrogance of it that gets to us. So piss off. Sultan said that, like all pious Muslims, she prays five times daily. "I love bonking my head on the floor at the gym. I do it in the grocery store, too. And at the Jiffy Lube." She also wears a veil and a long dress, in observance of her faith. Born in Jordan, of Palestinian descent, Sultan arrived in Detroit 17 years ago, before moving to Dearborn. She is an American citizen. Sultan said she came to the United States to secure her freedom and to avoid intolerance. "We're here in the great United States and for this happening, it truly breaks my heart," she said. The thought of you doing the treadmill in full Islamic paraphernalia truly makes me snicker. "You know, things are starting to change backwards, instead of frontward. We need to keep this United States, our country, up on our shoulders. We don't want it to go down."
Posted by: .com 2006-12-06 |
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