A visit to Azraq Wetland Reserve in the Kingdom of Jordan

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is typically thought of as a desert environment … if anyone takes the chance to consider the environmental classification of this small but strategically located country.  If you know anything about the geography and climatology of Jordan, then you will also know that it is one of the most water poor countries in the world, facing annual struggles to stay ahead of usage demands with meager supplies.So it may come as a surprise to you that Jordan is home to what was a vitally important, natural, regional wetland …. Azraq Oasis.

Azraq Wetland Preserve, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

Azraq Oasis would have covered a large area of the Eastern Jordan

Please note that I said … “was.”  It’s not that Azraq Oasis doesn’t still exist, but it is only a shadow of its former self.  The Oasis used to be larger that the country of Lebanon, a gigantic blue jewel in the the otherwise barren brown-hued landscape of Northeastern Jordan.  The Oasis was a haven for both humans and animals, serving as a stop for trade caravans traveling West from Baghdad and north from The Arabian Peninsula and also as a North-South rest stop for migratory birds.

Unfortunately, today only a fraction of this amazing wetlands environment remains.  Why?  Overuse of the precious water resource by Jordan’s developing cities in the late 1980s and the 1990s virtually annihilated the oasis.   The spring that had fed the  area for centuries retreated several meters underground in the 1990s.  The only reason anything remains today is that the Ministry of Water pumps water back into the Oasis today in an attempt to repair the damage that was approved by a previous version of the Ministry back in the 80s when they deemed that a certain level of pumping would do no harm to the wetlands.  Hindsight, as they say, is 20-20.

20 years ago the water in this area would have been up to my son's neck

Despite its sad history, the Azraq Wetlands Reserve remains a jewel in the Jordanian landscape.  As you drive through the open desert along highway 40 from Amman it is hard to imagine the trade caravans and legions of soldiers from every time period of recorded human history trekking through this barren landscape.  Yet, this is exactly what they did.  When they came over the final rise and viewed the drop down into the green and blue of the Azraq Basin it must have been a very welcome sight.  It still is today … but back then it would have stretched as far as the eye could see.

Getting to Azraq from Amman

Gray Heron

It is quite simple to get to the Azraq Wetland Preserve from Amman and takes about 1.25 to 1.5 hours depending on traffic.  Thew quickest way to get there is to head south out of the city by way of Misdar Street (the road from the balad through east Amman and joins up with the airport road just south of the City).  You go past Wahedat, Middle East Square/Circle, the vehicle licensing facility and just past some plant nurseries find an exit for Highway 40.  I’m pretty sure that the # is not mentioned, but there are signs for Sahaab, Azraq, and Iraq.  This highway will take you north and east out of Amman.  You follow it for quite some time through the Eastern Desert and past a few of the Desert Castles, which are surely worth a stop if you have the time.  Eventually, Highway 40 meets with Highway 30 (the route from Zarqa  and points north of Amman), and a handful of kilometers later the road comes to a T-instersection in the town of Azraq.  There are two parts to Azraq – North (Shemaali or Druuzi(for the Druze who once settled here)) and South (Januubi).  North Azraq is to the left from the intersection and is where you will find the intriguing black basalt Azraq Castle.  South Azraq is to the right from the intersection and is where you will find the entrance to the Wetland Reserve.  Highway 5 connects the two parts of Azraq and runs from the Saudi border in the south up to Highway 10 that runs to the Iraqi Border in the north and east.

Error in Lonely Planet Guidebooks – I have generally found the 2006 Lonely Planet  guide book to be an excellent resource for all things Jordan.  The 2009 version despite expanded info on Petra and Wadi Rum is a poor attempt at an update and has a lot of inaccuracies when it comes to prices and opening times.  I know this is to be expected over time, but right from the moment the new edition hit the shelves a lot of this info was wrong in the 2009 version.  Although now prices are off in both, I generally find the info in the 2006 guide to be more reliable.  However, both have got it wrong for the directions/maps to Azraq Castle and the Azraq Wetland Reserve.

The correct locations for attractions around Azraq

• Azraq Castle is located off Highway 5 in North Azraq (after turning left/north at the T-Instersection of Highways 30 and 5).  Just keep going through town … you can’t miss it on the left hand side.  And despite the guide saying it is free, they will charge you a couple JD to get in. (.250 JD for residents)
  
• The entrance to The Azraq Wetland Reserve is located just east of the main road that runs through South Azraq (after turning right/south at the T-Intersection).  Just follow the brown RSCN signs with the red arrows.
  
• Also note that the entrance fee info for the Reserve is incorrect in the guide, which states it as 2 JD.  It is actually as follows:  2 JD for Jordanian Citizens, 5 JD for foreigners with Jordanian residency, 10 JD for Foreign tourists.  It is worth it to help the local economy and the conservation efforts of the RSCN.  But it is a bit of a sticker shock if you arrive at the reserve looking to pay 2 JD.
• The Shaumari Wildlife Reserve that is listed as a double entry on a ticket from Azraq is closed indefinitely.  The RSCN employee at Azraq could not give me a time frame for when it would be open (as of December 2011).
  

Kudos to the RSCN

Killifish (or pupfish) species that is only found in Azraq .... almost died out, but was saved by RSCN efforts

The RSCN (Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature) has done a good job with their initial conservation efforts at Azraq.  They should be applauded for saving a rare species of killifish, only found in Azraq, from extinction.  They have also contributed to the survival of a herd of water buffalo – some of the only remaining large animals that once populated the oasis.  Without their efforts in advocacy, the entire basin would probably now be desert, so their work should be greatly appreciated.  Unfortunately the visitors center is small, as is the trail through the wetland.  It only covers a fraction of the Reserve.  Of course there is a delicate balance between preserving the natural environment and promoting eco-tourism, which in turn pays for the ongoing preservation efforts.  My sense is tourism through this out-of-the-way part of Jordan is a bit on the light side.  Perhaps there are a lot of school trips when the weather is nicer.

Well, that’s enough from me.   I should just let the pictures do the rest of the talking.  It should be noted that these pics are from the beginning of the winter season here in Jordan … I am going to go back in the Spring when I am sure the area will be much more green and vibrant!

…

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

A Thanksgiving Reflection on Hospitality in the Middle East

A very good friend of mine (David Swanson – click here for his blog) works as a pastor of a church in the Chicago area.  A couple of months ago he asked me to write an article to accompany a sermon series he was doing on hospitality.  The original article can be found on the church’s website (here), but I asked David if I could post it on my blog as well.  In light of the Thanksgiving holiday I thought that hospitality is a timely topic.  After all, during the holiday season we tend to invite people into our homes and practice this special form of love.  Here in Jordan hospitality is practiced everyday in ways that are different than we had experienced in the States.  This article reflects a little of what I have learned about hospitality while living here in the Middle  East.

The Fourth (Forgotten?) Love

I have enjoyed the privilege of living as a guest in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan for the past few years. If you are not familiar with Jordan it is the small, but influential nation to the east of the Jordan river. It is rich in biblical history and I like to think of it as the “Other Holy Land.” The country is small, almost landlocked, and predominately covered in desert. The people are mostly Arab Muslim and many of them have strong cultural ties to their Bedouin roots. Hospitality is one of the chief defining characteristics of Jordanian culture. Jordan is known as the country of “ahlan wa sahlan.” This is Arabic for “welcome,” or more literally “welcome and welcome again in the future.”

You haven’t truly experienced hospitality until you have been received as a guest in a Jordanian shop or home. It is not unusual to be served hot tea or coffee or a cold soda or juice while you are perusing the wares in a small shop in the old city. As a somewhat cynical westerner I first saw these gestures as some sort of marketing ploy – a way to guilt me into buying something. After all if the shopkeeper ran down the street to buy drinks for my family or took the time to prepare tea how could I not buy something in return. However, over time, I have come to realize that guilt and innocence don’t play as large a role in Jordanian society as American. Rather shame and honor are much more powerful societal motivators. It is very important for Jordanians to honor their guests through hospitality and avoid the shame of giving a poor welcome.

When a guest arrives at a Jordanian home, it is considered poor manners to keep them waiting on the doorstep. You keep a stranger outside, but a guest you immediately welcome into your home. Greetings are exchanged and can be quite lengthy. These include wishes for peace and god’s blessings as well as inquiries about health and the extended family. Greetings often include a kiss, once on the right cheek and then several times on the left if you are particularly close or wish to honor the one so greeted. Kisses are almost exclusively given along gender lines as it would be shameful for a man to kiss a woman in public.

Guests are often received in a room separate from the living area in the home and a sink or bathroom is usually nearby for the guests’ use to refresh themselves. Drinks are always immediately served. This is usually juice or soda or tea or perhaps all three over the course of a visit. Water might be served, but never by itself. Glassware is preferred over plastic and in any event the very best table service the household has will be used. The host does not ask if a guest wants something, or even give a choice of beverage. The host honors his guest by offering the best refreshment he can offer and the guest reciprocates by gratefully drinking whatever is given. The host will continue refilling the guest’s cup without asking until a subtle shaking of the cup side-to-side indicates that the guest is satisfied.

A typical visit can last for hours. If a guest makes signs that they are leaving too soon, this will result in strong protests from the host. The host traditionally signals that the visit is drawing to a close by serving one last cup of Arabic coffee. If the guests is insistent on leaving earlier than this, the host will invariably quickly prepare the coffee all the while wondering what is so important that the guest has to leave early.

Never say you have to visit another person for in doing so you dishonor your host by saying that the next person to be visited is more important than your current host. Simply say you have a pre-existing appointment which universally seems to be honored as a reason for leaving early.

These modern conventions are deeply rooted in the Bedouin history of Jordan. The modern nation was only born a half century ago and before that the majority of the people were engaged in a semi-nomadic agrarian way of life. Society was organized along tribal lines and allegiance to family, clan, and tribe were of paramount importance. Today, modern Jordanians still know their tribal lineage and family remains a more important subset of society than the individual. In honor-shame based societies the
actions of individuals brings honor or dishonor upon the larger group to which they belong. Therefore welcoming guests and strangers with genuine hospitality brought honor for the tribe, whereas a meager welcome would bring shame.

There are two Bedouin traditions from times past that still inform Jordanian hospitality today. The first is that of welcoming strangers for three days. The second is the offering of three cups of coffee to the guest.

Bedouins customarily welcomed strangers for three days without asking questions. This meant giving food, water, and shelter for all people and animals that were present. Only after three days was it polite for a host to inquire directly about the guests origins and business. Then the host would decide if he would extend the welcome or send the strangers politely (but perhaps firmly) on their way. This custom arose out of the great equalizing nature of life in the arid regions of the world. The desert humbles all men. It is impossible to survive long without provisions and provisions are only sustained over time by participation in a group. Travelers were always outside of their usual family and tribal support network and as such were often dependant on the hospitality of strangers for their survival. A generous welcome of someone would often ensure reciprocity if needed at a later date.

Once welcomed into the host’s tent the guest would often be served three cups of coffee. These were more than just liquid refreshment, but powerful symbols of the host’s intentions and the guest’s position. The first was the cup of peace, then the cup of friendship, and lastly the cup of protection. If you received all three cups the host had silently pledged that he would protect you as one of his own family members while you were a guest in his tent. Not a commitment made or taken lightly.

Today these customs can be observed in their original form in some of the desert tents of Jordanian Bedouins who live far from the bright lights of the big city. However, their essence, if not practice, still permeates the society in general. I have never witnessed people who are quicker to welcome strangers and provide for their needs. This is true both on the level of individuals and family, but also on the macro-level of society as a whole. Historically Jordan has freely welcomed waves of refugees into their small borders and provided for their needs (Circassians, Armenians, Palestinians, and Iraqis immediately come to mind).

I have been told that the moment the stranger crosses the threshold of the door and enters the house he or she becomes a guest. The words are not grammatically related in Arabic and carry very different meanings. If you have been received into the home and shared food and drink it is impossible for you to remain a stranger in the Jordanian psyche. Your customs and actions may be strange, but you have become an honored and protected guest. Some people I know view this even more broadly, saying that the moment I stepped on Jordanian soil I became a guest deserving of hospitality.

This welcoming of the stranger is also an important Biblical principle. We see it played out repeatedly in the stories of the Old Testaments, where the patriarchs of the three great monotheistic religions crisscross the desert offering and receiving hospitality in their tents not unlike Jordan’s modern Bedouins. In the New Testament, Jesus likens offering hospitality to strangers to offering hospitality to the Lord himself and goes even further in linking the lack of offering hospitality to being disowned on judgment day (Matthew 25:31-46).

This notion of welcoming strangers and offering hospitality is actually closely linked linguistically. Although time has shrouded the origins of the term in English, the Latin roots of the term “hospitality” are linked to the words for “guest” and “host.” The host in Latin was literally, “The Lord of strangers.” If we dig deeper and look at the Greek word used in such New Testament commands to “share with God’s people in need. Practice hospitality.” (Romans 12:13) and “Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.” (1st Peter 4:9), we find that the term is philaxenia. Think of the more familiar term philadelphia which is commonly translated “brotherly love.” Philaxenia on the other hand could be “strangerly love” or “love for the stranger.” We might be well advised to add this term to its three better known cousins (philadelphia, eros, & agape) in order to round out our understanding of the depth and importance of offering hospitality as an important aspect of love.

This is more than simply asking our brother who is always over if he wants a drink. It’s more than showing our Aunt Maddie who stopped in on her way to Florida where the bathroom is. It’s more than telling friends from church to “make themselves at home.” Think about it for a moment. Love for the stranger. Love for the stranger. Love for the stranger. Hospitality is an act of love; an act of love not for those who are like us, but for those who are unlike us.

Nothing could probably be farther from the modern American cultural psyche. From childhood we are taught to distrust strangers. Another Greek term might better sum up our attitude towards them: xenophobia. We usually keep strangers on the doorstep, talking to them from behind a chained door, if at all. If they cross that threshold no transformation takes place, they simply become strangers inside our house – invading our personal domain. Even with the best of friends and family we schedule visits days, or sometimes weeks in advance. We think that how we welcome a guest only reflects on us personally as individuals. Furthermore, in our modern society no one is really in need of provision and protection when they arrive on our doorstep, are they?

But perhaps we forget that we belong to a larger family … a tribe. A tribe whose head is Jesus, and our actions actually bring honor or shame to His name. Even if no one else sees how we welcome a guest in our home (or perhaps to think more broadly – our neighborhood, our city, our nation), He does and He has made it clear that welcoming the stranger is something that is very important to Him. This means getting over our fear of people who are different from us, those who might even on the face of it seem to be our enemies. I wonder if Jesus so highly values love for strangers because he realizes something vital, that perhaps we miss.

We are all strangers here.

Every last one of us, no matter nationality, race, tribe, or religion is a sojourner in this world. We are all just passing through.

And maybe, just like the occupants of the Bedouin tent deep in the desert, we are all in need of both giving and receiving hospitality when least expected and with no questions. After all, it is not only a matter of survival, but also of great honor.

November Novel Writing in the Middle East

Wow!  It’s a little hard to believe that I have been M.I.A. from the blogosphere since September 18th!  That’s just a little sad, and more than a bit crazy but perfectly understandable.  Why?  (You might ask.)

National Novel Writing Month!

Those of you who know me well know that this has been my November obsession for the past 6 years.  However, some of you may have no idea what National Novel Writing Month is …. so an explanation is probably in order.  Basically, it’s a crazy writing challenge for those creative types out there who have always thought about writing a novel someday.  The official challenge is simply this:  write 50,000 words in the month of November.  This will amount to a rough draft of a Farenheit 451 or Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy-length novel.  At the end of the month participants can upload their novel to the NaNoWriMo (the affectionate short-hand nickname for the group) website and their word count will be electronically validated to make sure that they did in fact write 50,000 words.  The files are then promptly deleted and if they have been successful in their attempt, winners can claim their electronic winners certificate and their sense of pride in accomplishing an incredible feat of creative-writing.

That’s it.

No assurance or even hint at publication is involved.  There is  no reading of the novel in question and providing a critique or writing advice. It’s simply a gut-level challenge to churn out 50,000 words in 1-month.  That’s 1,667 words-a-day if you were trying to do the math in your head.

People Really do This?

Yup!  As a matter of fact its estimated that 1/4 of a million of us are doing it this month.  This is no small fact when you consider that in 1999 the event basically started out as a dare among friends and there were 21 participants.  They did it again in 2000 and had 140 participants.  2001?  5,000!  Apparently founder Chris Baty and his friends had struck a creative nerve.  No one expected at that time that a decade later over 200,000 people from around the globe would be participating.

This is one of the reasons I love NaNoWriMo!  It is such a fantastic example of a “00′s” cultural phenomenon.  Like Facebook …. it was something that started off as a kinda funny idea among friends and it turned into something with global reach.  It should be noted that NaNoWriMo grew from 21 participants to 25,500 by the time Facebook launched in 2004.  Technology did play a huge role in NaNo’s expansion … but before the advent of social networking as we know it today, they relied on Yahoo groups and a good “old-fashioned” bulletin board system (of the electronic variety, not cork) and chat rooms.

Another key to NaNo’s success, in my opinion was the recruiting of volunteer “municipal liaisons” to organize events in major cities around the US and later on around the world.  These volunteer leaders would put a face on the event as they met with writers in person to encourage them towards their novel-writing  goals.

So What Has my Experience Been Like?

I started back in 2005 when I was still living in the Western suburbs of Chicago.  I had learned of the event a couple of years before, but was in the midst of writing my Master’s thesis.  That turned out to be a 60,000+ word challenge of its own that kind of sapped all of my writing energy.  But with that behind me in the Fall of 2005 I decided to take the plunge and finished a 51,000 word rough draft of a novel.  I loved the idea and the main character and the process of writing, but I hated my rough draft.  It was so terrible!  Drivel.  And as my wife always likes to point out … incomplete.  Oh …. and 6 years later still unpublished.  Both moot points to me … the challenge was to write 50,000 words in a month, and I did!

Of my 7-years I have won 5, one year completing two NaNo novels for a total word count of over 100,000 words.  Two years (the year before and after I moved to the Middle East) I totally tanked.  This year … we shall see.  Today I should have 30,006 words to be on track to finish on November 30th, but unfortunately I am around 10,000 words behind.  But I like this year’s story, as well, it is about a brother and sister who accidentally get drawn into an adventure that crosses over into a world filled with trolls and faeries and other magical creatures and happenings.  Actually mostly that world gets pulled into ours.  My goal is for it to be fun and whimsical and something I can read to my kids.  So far, not so bad … but not so great either … it will definitely need some revision before it gets read to the kiddos.

Over the years I have mostly written fantasy type stories that have some sort of cross-over between the “real” world and the “fantasy” world.  I suppose this is partly because I love CS Lewis’ Narnia, but also because I think we have lost a lot of our sense of wonder and amazement at life.  It almost feels to me sometimes that technology has drained some of the magic out of our daily lives.

I’ve also tried my hand at science fiction and mystery writing.  I discovered that to write well in either of these genres requires a fair amount of research, foreknowledge, and planning.  As it turns out I may just not be smart enough to write a believable mystery or sci-fi novel.  =)

Novel Writing in the Middle East

For the past few years I have been involved in what is known as the Elsewhere::Middle East region of National Novel Writing Month.  This basically includes all of the NaNoWriMo participants spread out over the Middle East that don’t have their own country specific region (like Israel or Turkey or Egypt … although we adopted Egypt this year).  There are probably around 200 participants in the Middle East.  A lot of them are ex-pats from America or Europe, but there are also a growing number of native Middle Easterners that have been getting involved.  There are around 20 writers here in Jordan and it seems like 1/3 are ex-pats, 1/3 are ex-pats married to Jordanians, and 1/3 are Jordanians.  Actually there is also a group of about 100 Jordanian high school students who take part each year through the Young Writer’s Program!

Here in Jordan we get together once a week for “Write-Ins” at a local coffee shop.  All of us WriMos (as we are affectionately, if nerdily, called) bring our laptops and spend 3 or 4 hours writing together.  Remember NaNo is a solo effort, so we are all writing independently, but it helps being in the same room with other “crazy” people going after the same audacious goal.

One thing I have noted here in Jordan is that among the locals participants tend to be women.  This is largely true around the entire Middle East region.  There are certainly male ex-pats involved, but when it comes to Arab male participation … it is very low.  Considering the great tradition of Arab novelists and poets this seems really odd to me.  Consider the likes of Khalil Ghibrain, Mustafa Al-Tall, Elias Khoury, Zakariah Tamer, Mahmoud Darwish, Naguib Mahfouz, & Nizar Qabbani to just name a few off the top of my head.  These were all literary greats with deep intellect and creative spirit … so where are the Arab male writers of today?

From an outsider’s perspective, it seems that creativity is not as a highly prized cultural value as conformity.  I wonder if this plays a role in the popularity, or lack thereof, of something like NaNoWriMo here in the Middle East.  One female Arab participant related to me the litany of questions from family members at a holiday celebration.  They just couldn’t wrap their minds around the idea of simply writing for personal pleasure.  “So no one is going to read it?”  “It won’t be published?”  “Why are you doing this again?”  But in the end, even if they didn’t fully understand or even approve, they all had opinions about what she should be writing and how she should be doing it! LOL!

Well, I’ve wasted some precious time and word count filling you in on why I haven’t been active on the blog in the last month or so.  Now I should go and try to catch up on my 10,000 word deficit!  Be sure to check out the NaNoWriMo website if you are interested in the challenge.  It’s never too late.  And any Arab guys that are out there reading this … c’mon shabaab!  One of you might be the next Nizar Qabbani or Zakariah Tamer!

The Rye Playland Head Scarf Incident: A Sad Day for America

If you keep up on news in the Muslim-American community the you probably now about the Rye Playland incident from the end of August during Eid al-Fitr. If not it was basically a situation that got way out of hand between police ans Muslim amusement park goers over the issue of head coverings. It ended up with several arrests and both sides pointing fingers. It was a hot news item for aproximately 5-days and then completely fizzled out. I even started a post on it and never finished it. I don’t really have the time to go back and clean it up for publication … so here is my original draft on the topic from Sept. 3rd. Sorry for any typos or dead links – this is my draft copy.

***Original draft post from September3rd begins here ***

For those of you who regularly follow this blog, you know I have been writing on my outsider’s perspective of the observance of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan here in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.  The month is now over and Muslims here are celebrating Eid al-Fitr one of most important religious holidays on the Islamic calender.  The same was true of around 3,000 Muslims at Rye Playland in suburban Westchester County just outside of New York City on Tuesday.  This outing was organized by the Muslim American Society of New York and unfortunately what started as a family-oriented outing ended with allegations of religious discrimination, willful inciting of riots, police brutality and 15 arrests.

I have one more entry in my Ramadan series, but had to take a moment to address this sad news from America.  Actually, I have struggled all day with what to write.   As an American who has been living as a guest in Muslim nation for the past few years I read the news reports and blog entries on the incident with a heavy heart.  From my perspective the incident was completely avoidable and indicative of the cross-cultural shortsightedness plaguing America today.

If you are not familiar with the details of the incident, the following links might be helpful:

Lower Hudson Valley News Report

ABC Local report with video

My Summary of What Happened

Accounts vary on what actually took place and I am not a reliable reporter as I am a few thousand miles and a few days removed from what occurred.  However, after reading a bunch of articles on the matter this is what I’ve pieced together.  The special event was organized in advance between the Muslims American Society (MAS) of NY and Rye Playland.  News outlets have obtained e-mails exchanged between the two organizations that included information given on Playland’s safety policy re. “head gear” on certain rides.  For safety reasons the park bans all “head gear” on certain rides.  The MAS representative indicated that “there is going to be a lot of commotion about this” but the park administration indicated that they were firm on the policy and that it could not be changed.

It appears that the overwhelming majority of Muslim attendees were informed about the policy and had no trouble.  However, a few seem to have been uninformed.  One 17-year old Muslim woman appears to have been one of those who didn’t know about the policy and took umbrage at the fact that she was being denied access to a particular ride after refusing to remove her hijab, or head scarf.  She argued with the ride attendant and then complained whop management who would not change the policy.  This young lady then reports that she told other Muslim women in attendance who also were surprised by the restriction.  An argument between Muslim attendees then ensued.  Some said that the women should just take off their scarves.  Others declared that this amounted to religious discrimination.

Security personnel apparently stepped in to break up this argument between the Muslim attendees and that’s when things began to escalate.  Eyewitness reports vary but all seem to indicate that police who responded to the scene eventually forcibly grabbed a woman, pushed her to the ground and handcuffed her.  Others who saw this tried to intervene on her behalf and a large scuffle broke out including multiple police and around 30-40 Muslims.  Police were apparently caught on video using batons to subdue belligerents. One young man visibly bruised from the encounter reported to the news media that he was being hit by police even though he was not resisting arrest.  Others stated that in the chaos police were grabbing bystanders observing the scuffle and arresting them in the confusion.

100 officers and 60 units from 9 different departments responded to the scene.  The I-95 exit to the park was closed and the park itself was shut down for 2 hours in the aftermath of the incident.  Police officials state that only necessary force was used to keep the situation from getting more out-of-hand, but Muslim attendees claim that it was this use of force that escalated the situation in the first place.

My  Thoughts and Observations

As an outsider in a predominately Muslim society I experience Islamic culture in a way that most Americans do not.  I count many Muslims among my friends and have had almost 100% positive interactions while here.  It is through this lens that I view Muslims in general and this impacts the way I filter news about Muslims.  Below are some of my reactions to this sad incident.

The number of people involved

I’ve been caught up in two riots in and have observed a handful of mass demonstrations in my day.  These can be scary situations and the psychological dynamics of crowds are dicey at best.  To say that rational decision making goes out the window quickly is an understatement.  With reports of fights breaking out at a public facility in suburban New York with 3,000 Muslims in attendance I am sure that law enforcement personnel reporting to the scene were envisioning worst-case scenarios.  That said, it must be stated that only 30-40 park patrons were eventually involved in the altercation.  That is only around 1% of the Muslims in attendance and only 1/2% of all of those at the park that day.  This number seems important to me.  99% of the Muslims were not involved and apparently peacefully complied with park regulations and the orders of law enforcement personnel.

How it all started

An interview of the 17-year old woman who “started the whole thing” can be found here.  She was apparently told by the ride attendant to remove her “head gear” and she responded, ““This has nothing to do with headgear,this is my religion.”  From my perspective this is where it all could have been avoided.  This interchange is indicative of cultural misunderstanding and short-sightedness on both sides.  The park attendant was simply quoting park policy:

Hats must be secured, and jackets/sweaters must be worn properly and not around the waist while on a ride. Some rides do not allow backpacks, purses or head gear of any kind.

The park doesn’t “ban head scarfs” in particular as some sensational headlines make it seem, but rather bans all head gear on some rides.  The use of the term “head gear” seems to be an intentional catch all phrase to cover any and all items that might be worn on a persons head.  However, to a person of faith who wears a head scarf for religious and cultural purposes I can see how the term could come across as flippant, insensitive, or even disrespectful.  Head gear sound like something you wear at a hockey match or use to straighten your teeth.

*** end of original draft post ***

Now here are my final questions and comments to all parties involved:

1. To event organizers: knowing that this was going to be a hot-button issue with some of your constituents did you really do everything in your power to let people know about Playland’s policy? Really?

2. To the 17-year old girl who got so upset: I respect your wishes to cover your head as part of your religious and cultural practice. However, I seriously question your need to get upset about being denied access to an amusement park ride because of a safety rule in place for your own  protection (as well as the safety of others). The park is duty bound to protect its guests – if they are prohibiting all forms of head coverings on certain rides you cannot claim religious discrimination. Besides, sometimes God calls us to do certain things according to a different moral standard and this causes us to act differently than non-religious people. It seems to me that God calling you to wear a head covering is more important than being free to ride a roller coaster. In other words to be obedient to God’s commands sometimes we have to limit our own freedoms.

3. To Rye Playland Management and Staff: Do you uniformly enforce your no head gear policy? The young girl seems to indicate that you do not. If that is the case then you do open yourself up to charges of religious discrimination. Also knowing that this was going to be a hot-button issue did you do everything in your power to train your staff to handle the issue with sensitivity? Do employees need to call religious coverings “head gear?” Did you do everything you could to inform riders even before they bought tickets of you policies? By all accounts the Muslim group was 1/2 your ticket sales that day. I would say going the extra mile to ensure that size group is educated and satisfied is just common sense and good business. If it were me I would have made sure every person saw the policy at or before the ticket counter.

4. To security and law enforcement: it seems there are ways to de-escalate tense situations without throwing people on the ground, using batons, and handcuffing people. Given the small percentage of overall park goers actually involved in the incident it seems your response may have been disproportionate.  Not to mention it was their holiday.  Do you get that to them this would be like a Jewish cop throwing a Catholic girl on the ground and handcuffing her on Christmas? Perhaps more restraint was called for … but not of that kind.

5.  To all the conservative bloggers and fear mongers out there trying to turn this incident into something menacing:  knock it off.  At the core of this story is a 17-year old girl who (IMO) is a little bit immature and decided to take the wrong stand for her religion.  She has confused something that is a necessary inconvenience (giving up a roller coaster ride for the sake of her religious values) with religious discrimination. In the end, she’s just a teenager responding to things as teenagers do.  Stop trying to find some hidden Muslim agenda against America in every incident relating to Muslims.

I think this completely avoidable incident is indicative of the climate of fear and misunderstanding that still obscures the way most Americans view their Muslim American neighbors. A sad day indeed.