What I thought was going to be a fun-filled day at Playland today turned out to be something other than that. I will be posting something tomorrow, inshAllah, about my personal experience. I will be discussing the excessive Westchester-style police presence that occurred there after the brawl on the day of Eid. For now, I will raise the following questions: Why did the participating MAS (al-Ikhwan al-Muslimoon) masjids not inform their congregations that Playland has policies in place that essentially ban all type of "headgear" (which includes hijabs)?; Why did the park rangers (Westchester County Police Department) overeact to a situation and start beating people?; Why were scores of police blocking the entrence to Playland for about two to three hours? Did the park officials even know that the hijab is not an item that can be removed freely in public? Why does the media keep referring the the hijab as "traditional headgear?"
Read more tomorrow as I share the experience of my one hour detainment for taking pictures of the masses of police. Please feel free the try and answer some of the questions I have already raised.
Khalil Al-Puerto Rikani
Yonkers, New York
