Do you ever go to a gym? I have for years. I have never seen anyone pray there. What is the muslim woman doing praying at a gym? What if the muslim woman was a Christian. Would you be as concerned? You would probably say she should be praying at home or her church if she was a Christian. Isn't that right? Would you also be sympathetic to the Christian about respecting her God if she was a Christian?

You know I was at Mass Sunday when I realized I hadn't been to the gym yet, so I jumped out into the isle and started doing jumping jacks and then some push ups. Can you imagine they asked me to leave?!!? The nerve of them interrupting my work out. I guess I should have called the media!!

My gawd alias.
You have some cajones (or rather just a complete lack of sensibility) to hold BOTH the position that we should allow school prayer, and then complain about a Muslim praying at the gym.


Yeah. Your lack of reading comprehension.
Somebody INTERRUPTED HER praying.
Geezus Alias. I realize you've got a feeling to want to bash Muslims, but at least get your damn facts straight.


Oh yeah. That we would TOTALLY say that the Christian was at fault...
< end sarcasm >

Oh wait. No. That's YOU.
Tell me alias. What if this woman WAS a Christian and another patron interrupted her prayer.
Would you side with the Christian? Or the patron?

Because in all honesty I don't care which religion is praying. If the Christian woman is interrupted while praying at the gym, then that's wrong.


HOW is this a set-up?
Unlike the other example, this one has BLATANT SIGNS of anti-Islamic prejudice.

"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.

What the hell do you think your "conspiracy" story involves?
A muslim woman who planned for SEVEN OR EIGHT YEARS that she would be nice, and then after SEVEN OR EIGHT YEARS, she causes a ruckus???
Jesus. You're just as bad as Lucy.

alias why do you support this idiot, who relies on prescription drugs and when busted relies on the ACLU for protection?

Your Quote of Rush,
"War is worthless except for ending slavery, Nazism, fascism, and communism. Other than that, war is pointless."

Rush Limbaugh

FOXNews.com - ACLU Comes to Rush Limbaugh's Defense - Celebrity Gossip | Entertainment News | Arts And Entertainment

Let me get this straight...

A Muslim woman is in a fitness center, but she's not working out. She's praying.
Seems fair enough to me. I guess she can do whatever she wants.

Another patron of the same fitness center interrupts this Muslim woman's prayer by - of all things - working out in the fitness center.

The Muslim woman complains to management. They basically tell her, "Too bad, so sad."

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM HERE?

The primary purpose of a fitness center is for people to work out and exercise - not pray. There's nothing wrong with her praying, but she can't expect the world to stop and be quiet so she can pray in a "non-prayer place".

If I were so inclined to pray, I would NOT do it at a gym, or fitness center. And if, by some absurd stretch of the imagination, I chose to pray at a fitness center and somebody else was in there causing noise on the exercise equipment, I sure as heck wouldn't complain about it.

Idiots...

This is not what the article says. If someone else working out were enough to interrupt the prayer, it would have happened long ago. This must have been more than that.

No I do not.

I think that Muslims are supposed to pray at certain times each day. Maybe one of these times was during her normal gym time. So why leave the gym to pray or stop going to the gym? Praying at the gym shouldn't be a problem.

I would be just as unhappy if this were a Christian. Every person should be free to pray wherever and whenever they want. We should be free to pray in schools, at work, in government buildings, and in courthouses. We should be free to pray anywhere.

I only have a problem when the government encourages prayer or endorses a certain religion. Individuals should be free to pray where and when they choose.

Actually, that's exactly what the article says:
It goes on to say that, basically, the person she complained to "blew her off":

So first of all, you have two people with different stories about what happened - the Muslim lady and the manager.

But the main point is this: This is a fitness center. That is its primary purpose. It is NOT a prayer center - not for christians, muslims, buddhists, or any other religion. If people are praying there, that's fine, but that's not its PRIMARY PURPOSE.

Therefore, if a person who is exercising - at a fitness center - disturbs somebody who is praying, the problem is NOT the person who is exercising. It is the person who is praying.

GET IT?

That is correct.

But why does this Muslim woman expect the "whole world to stop and be quiet" so that she can pray in a Fitness Center?

If she doesn't want her prayer time disturbed, DON'T GO TO THE FITNESS CENTER DURING PRAYER TIME.

This is really very, very simple...

Exactly.

The article is very scarce on details, and really all we have is "interrupt" and what the Muslim woman said that the manager told her.

A quick google search shows absolutely no hits for "Wardeh Sultan". Weird...

But searching Dearborn Fitness USA Muslim gave this:

Dearborn, USA - For some women, it can be a little creepy to have men watch them exercise at the gym. For Ammerah Saidi, it's a violation of her religious beliefs as a Muslim.

So when her local gym started letting men work out on days that had previously been reserved for women only, Saidi complained.

At first, the management at the suburban Detroit Fitness USA balked at concerns that the women could be observed from the small area where men were allowed to exercise. But after Saidi presented a petition from over 200 members -- and the story hit the local news -- a wall was built so the women could exercise in privacy.

Moves such as this have spurred a debate about the intrusion of religion on public life and public space. Several bloggers proposed a boycott because the gym had "caved" to the demands of "extremists," but even more moderate observers are concerned.

"Private businesses should not be coerced by a minority," said Zudhi Jasser, founder of the Phoenix-based American Islamic Forum for Democracy.

Jasser, a practicing Muslim, said that while it is important to protect the right to practice religion he fears the affects of allowing religious beliefs to dominate how people interact in the public sphere. It can lead to ghettoization and isolation among those who impose the beliefs and a backlash among those who feel imposed upon, he said.

WorldWide Religious News-Accommodation of Muslim women's modesty spurs debate in US

While the business is not obligated to provide separation, it would still be a business decision as to whether or not to alienate a Muslim client base and lose that income, or to alienate ???? who would quit membership based on the separation.
If the Muslim client base is large enough, the shrewd decision is to provide the desired separation.