nypost.com - A Muslim woman claims that a Connecticut roller-skating rink discriminated against her because it wouldn't allow her to skate in her headscarf.
Marisol Rodriguez-Colon, 40, said she was "mortified" when she and another female relative showed up for a niece's birthday party at the Ron-A-Roll rink in Vernon and were barred at the door.
The venue's rules, posted at the entrance, read: "No Hats. No Headwear. No Exceptions."
Colon said her religious hijab shouldn't count under that policy -- and tried to appeal to a rink manager.
"We wear this for religious reasons," Colon said. "But they didn't want to hear that."
The manager, Colon said, gave the women two choices: take off the headscarves, or wear a helmet over them.
Taking off the hijabs was "not an option," Colon told WTIC-TV in Hartford.
She said she has worn the traditional headscarf for 16 years and has it on "wherever I go."
She and the other relative went back to their car and missed the party.
"I wear this with pride," Colon said. "I was mortified -- by asking someone to wear a helmet you are actually ostracizing us.
"You are singling us out and showing everyone there is an issue -- that something is wrong with these two women."
Ron-A-Roll management issued a statement spelling out its "no headwear" policy. It said helmets are offered for safety purposes.
"You are not allowed -- you are not welcome here. That is what that says to me," Colon said of the statement.
She said she was insulted that the rink would deny entrance to people "because of what they believe and what they are wearing because of those beliefs."
The Council on American-Islamic Relations said yesterday it filed a complaint with Connecticut's Human Rights Commission.
Several years ago, University of Albany student Zahra Shah was barred from wearing her headscarf at an upstate New York roller rink.
That arena, citing insurance reasons, also banned headwear.
An employee at the time told Shah that other skaters could trip and get hurt if the hijab fell off.
When Shah explained that she wore the scarf for religious reasons, one rink employee told her it was like a cowboy "religiously" wearing a cowboy hat.
After a barrage of phone calls from activist groups and others, the rink management apologized and said Shah could skate with her headscarf.
Blog author's comments - Just more fuel for the fire! The people of the Islamic religion known as Muslims continue to want and receive special rights and privileges and many United States citizens are ready to grant them their desires. What's next for us Sharia law? We would not want to be called anti-Islam or racist would we?
I don't happen to agree with the Islamic religion and its teachings. If you live within the U.S. you are free to practice your religion of choice but you should also abide by the rules and laws of our land. You should not receive special treatment from our people or government simply because of your religious beliefs.
I think that most of us have seen what has happened in the U.K. when their politicians caved and now the country is in very deep trouble from which they will never recover.
