Ola Salem says it was her refusal to take off her head scarf that sparked Tuesday’s fracas at Playland Amusement Park.
“I started the whole thing,” the 17-year-old Brooklyn resident said today.
Her father and 14 other people were arrested after tempers flared when Salem, a Muslim, was told by a ride attendant she would have to remove her “headgear” — her hijab — if she wanted to get on the ride.
“This has nothing to do with headgear,” Salem recalled saying to the ride attendant. “This is my religion.”
Salem said word of her protest spread quickly among the many Muslims who were at the park, there to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr, one of Islam’s two major holidays.
Scores of people, upset at what they saw as discrimination, gathered at the park’s exit. Some were yelling and cursing at each other, after an internal dispute arose over whether the women should just take their scarves off to go on the rides.
Salem said she saw a park ranger push a Muslim woman near her, perhaps by accident.
When the woman pushed him back, violence erupted, she said.
“Rangers pulled out sticks and started hitting people, taking them to the floor,” she said.
Four officers tackled a woman and pinned her to the ground, Salem said. A Muslim man was punched in the face.
“They did everything so brutally,” she said.
Playland’s ban on headscarves on certain rides is, at best, capricious, Salem said. She said during a visit to the amusement park three months ago, she was not prohibited from getting on any of the rides.