"When Arrwa Mogalli agreed to plunk down $1,465 for a lifetime membership with the Fitness USA chain of gyms, she did so after being promised that its Lincoln Park facility would be open only to women on certain days.
As a devout Muslim, Mogalli firmly believes her religion frowns on her working out where she could see men -- and men could see her -- moving and dressed in a manner that might seem immodest.
So when the Lincoln Park gym decided this month to open up part of the center to both sexes every day, the 28-year-old Dearborn resident and other area Muslims felt cheated. So far, about 200 Muslim women with Fitness USA memberships have signed a petition asking the chain to return to gender-specific days for the entire gym or to put up a divider so men and women can't see each other while working out.
Fitness USA officials met with one of the women and a Muslim advocate this week at their corporate office in West Bloomfield and said they are working on a response to the women's concerns. But they also noted that their written contracts say nothing about gender.
The women's concerns reflect the ways many Muslims in metro Detroit are trying to blend their American lifestyles with Islamic traditions [That is B.S. if they were trying to blend in, they would not be demanding special accomodations to be made.]. In recent years, for example, Dearborn Public Schools has offered gender-segregated gym and swimming classes. The move came after a growing number of Muslim parents expressed concerns about their children attending physical education classes with the opposite sex, school officials said.
In the case of Fitness USA and other private gyms, some Muslim women say it's cumbersome to exercise wearing Islamic headscarves and clothes covering their bodies, as required under some interpretations of Islam. That's why they want the option of separate workout spaces.
"In Islam, there are codes of modesty for both genders," Ammerah Saidi, 23, of Dearborn, a lifetime member of Fitness USA who is upset over its recent change, said this week. "When you're working out, you're not dressed modestly, and you're bending in provocative ways, so you can't be working out with the opposite gender."
Though Islam is guiding their concerns, Saidi and other Muslims stress that people of other faiths, including Christians and Orthodox Jews, share similar concerns. Moreover, with the Islamic population growing, Muslims argue it makes good business sense for local companies to accommodate their faith."
...
Let me state here and now, I have absolutely no problem excersing in a mixed gender gym, I am a Roman Catholic woman...Muslims apparently want special privileges and are using Christians & Jews as a cover in order to increase their power through numbers...
These "special privileges" need to be nipped in the bud, because I have absolutely no desire to be subjected to SHARI'AH...
This article was originally found at JihadWatch.org.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060421/NEWS05/604210355/1007/NEWS05
UPDATE - - - April 25, 2006:
**** UPDATE: AMMERAH SAIDI, MUSLIM WOMAN PROTESTING THE GYM, DEFENDS ISLAMIC TERRORISTS, WON'T DENOUNCE HOMICIDE BOMBINGS, SAYS, "IF IT [AMERICA] FALLS TO ISLAM, SO BE IT." (SEE COMMENTS.) ****
See story here:
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/2006/04/islamic_imperia.html#comments
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