On Thursday, The New York Post posted an article about the cancellation of a ‘Muslim only’ event at a taxpayer funded waterpark in Texas.
The article reports:
The head of a Texas Islamic group that rented out a taxpayer-funded waterpark for an event that was advertised as “Muslim only” runs a childhood education center with the exact same unfortunate ‘Learing Center’ typo first seen at an infamous daycare in Minneapolis.
The “Excellence Early Learing Center,” as its misspelled website header reads — located in the Fort Worth suburb of Hurst — offers a variety of programs for youngsters from infants to pre-K, and promises to provide children with “the loving, personal care that they need to thrive and feel confident.”
The center boasts “multiculturalism, small classroom sizes, healthy eating and a warm, loving environment that feels like home” and staff with degrees in “education, accounting, biology, pharmacology, science, nursing and mathematics from their home countries.”
Its owner, head operator and curriculum designer is Aminah Knight, who boasts a master’s degree fro the University of Southern California and a doctorate from Vanderbilt University.
Earlier this week, Knight and her DFW Epic Eid organization drew massive criticism for a flyer advertising an event at Epic Waters in Grand Prairie billed as “Muslim only” and requiring modest swimsuits for all attendees.
Epic Waters, a sprawling, 80,000-square-feet indoor waterpark opened in 2017 at a cost of $88 million — funded by a 0.25% sales tax hike residents approved at the ballot box in 2014.
The FAQ for the third-annual event, which was being held to celebrate the Muslim holiday Eid, initially proclaimed “the entire waterpark has been exclusively reserved for Muslims.”
After the backlash, Knight modified the advert to omit the exclusionary language, and acknowledged to The Post in an email that the original messaging wasn’t intended to bar non-Muslims.
When asked, Knight stated that her goal was simply to provide an atmosphere where “individuals and families who value modest dress and a modest environment can come together and feel comfortable enjoying a recreational space.” I can agree with the idea of requiring modest dress, but you can’t restrict the use of a publicly-funded waterpark to a specific religious group. I’m sure you could rent a private waterpark and limit the people allowed to use it on a specific day, but that wouldn’t be pushing the envelope, which is what I suspect was originally happening here.