UPDATE: video of the speech within here. They didn’t want non-Muslims to see it; that attitude went into the garbage with the last of the ‘Whites Only’ signs half a century ago. Amil Imani files his writeup of the background and the event here.
A couple of us decided to drop in to observe from afar (NOT to attend) a Sharia awareness event tonight at the Hyatt of Richardson. Jim Bright sent this report in:
This evening, Wednesday, July 27, 2011, Dr. Tariq Ramadan (previously banned from the U.S – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariq_Ramadan), the grandson of Hassan al-Banna, the founding father of the Muslim Brotherhood, spoke at the Hyatt – North Dallas in Richardson, Texas.
The topic: Dinners to Support Religious Freedom & Sharia Awareness
http://www.icna.org/dinner-to-support-religious-freedom-sharia-awareness/
Certainly the title of his “Dinner” conflicted with his former expulsion from the US, but curious, I decided to at least come out and observe what I can observe. Arriving at the Hyatt at about 6:10, it was easy to spot the ballroom for the venue, and, seeing very few people in attendance, I took up a seat in the hallway some distance from the ballroom where I felt I could observe the event from a safe, and polite distance.
As I sat, and waited, and minded my own business, a few Muslims began to trickle in. Some in full traditional Muslim clothing, others appearing more Westernized. Roughly eight or so other Richardson police officers also arrived (apparently this peace loving group was anticipating trouble).
As a few more minutes passed, I noticed an older gentleman with a US Marine Corps Veteran hat in the hall. As my father was an Air Force Veteran, I struck up a conversation with him and his wife to help pass the time.
We spoke, quietly, and respectfully, about what we were seeing. At this point I noticed two non-Arabic men, with tickets, entering the event. No more than a few more moments had passed when a representative of the Hyatt came up to us and asked us to move to the lobby, away from the “party”. He was rude, and firm. Not in the way one would expect to be handled by staff at a world-class hotel. Sadly, I did not get his name. We asked why, and were told it was a private event (mind you, the private event was inside the ballroom, and we were quite some distance from it). Surprised, we protested, but accomodated. Obviously, we had been singled out for being white and not wearing Muslim clothing.
Once in the lobby, we saw the two men with tickets being escorted out. They had been expelled from the “Dinner to Support Religious Freedom & Sharia Awareness” for being non-Muslim. At this point, hotel management asked us to leave the property altogether. Understanding that this is private property and they are well within their rights, I acknowledged that I would, but asked to speak to the hotel manager to voice my complaint.
Her name is Camerron Jackson (I may have her first name misspelled, but this is how I recall her spelling it).
She supported her staff and asked me to leave, at which point I asked for the name of the regional or district manager. At this point, a Jim Smith intercepted me and told me they could take my contact info, which I gave him, and he promised that person would get back to me. They then had the police come over to escort us out of the building.
What does this group have to fear from a small handful of non-Muslims standing around, having a private conversation, several doors down from their party? We had no protest signs, we were in no way disruptive, and we complied with all of their requests, yet the Hyatt, or the Muslims, felt the need to have the police escort us from the lobby?
I guess the Hyatt in Richardson tonight was a “Muslim Only Zone”
[Mike O]
Last night, I’d spoken strongly to discourage any sort of protest of this event at a meeting of concerned conservatives and helped convinced them not to do so. And I let them know that I would go to catch up with any stragglers that did show up to persuade them against anything confrontational that could prove to be counter-productive. I have a history for playing the ‘peacemaker’ role at rallies.
The sin I committed tonight- from where I was seated across the lobby- was have Jim stop by long enough to tell me he had been booted. That got me booted as well. The police were polite about it, but the hotel staff said nothing to me at all.
If you weren’t Muslim – or specifically had a room for the night, you were not welcome in the Hyatt of Richardson tonight, even well away from the area of the private event. It sure put a damper on my desire to go have a drink at the bar and maybe dinner at the hotel after the event was well under way.
My only question was whether the hotel staff had had to pray 5 times to the east today to work their shifts.
The greatest irony is in the name of the event: “Dinner to Support Religious Freedom & Sharia Awareness“ (Uhh, aren’t Muslims already AWARE of Sharia??)
In case any of you want to comment on this with the hotel (though there might be better response from district manager types), here is the hotel’s web site. PLEASE be polite if you do contact them.
UPDATE: Another piece of irony: we had been concerned people might show up with inflammatory signs and the like. If people HAD insisted on sign-waving outside the hotel, we had brought a couple for them to use. They said: “Here to Support the Freedoms of Expression, Religion, and Assembly: As Granted Under AMERICAN Law, NOT Sharia.“
Also, from an email sent to us: “Yes, the hotel is private property. However, the hotel is also a “place of public accommodation.” This concept put an end to white only restaurants and, of course, white only hotels.”
[...] Hyatt of Richardson Enforces a Muslim-only Policy « North Texas Tea Party. Share this:FacebookEmailRedditStumbleUpon This entry was posted in Interesting and tagged Freedom of Religion, Hyatt, Muslim, Sharia. Bookmark the permalink. ← Growth, Energy, and Debt [...]
[...] From here: http://northtexasteaparty.org/2011/07/28/hyatt-of-richardson-enforces-muslim-only-policy/ [...]
thanks to all the great Patriots – and those who came out from the North Texas Tea Party to our gathering at the GOP hdqtrs on Tues evening to discuss our peaceful response to the CALL TO ACTION wherein we wanted to express our OUTRAGE that those who seek to destroy us and our Constitutional Laws are indeed using our very Constitutional Laws of right to assembly and freedom of speech to undermine and replace our Constitution with Sharia Law! I, too, chose to attend in order to give support to the wonderful ladies who, during the meeting, chose to assemble at the Hyatt to have a ‘prayer vigil’ – and that’s just what was needed – after all, our great USA was founded UNDER GOD – and NOT under Allah! After walking past several detours of ‘helpful Hyatt workers’ who stopped me along every few paces as I attempted to go to the ballroom – I was asked ‘may i help you? are you here for the event? what ARE you here for?” I thanked them for their kind assistance and told the many ‘Hyatt greeters’ that I was so enthralled and invigorated to see such a bustling economy to know that the Hyatt had such an incredible staff of ‘greeters’ and business must be booming to have such a large welcome to anyone who walked into the hotel! I told each ‘greeter’ that I was looking at the hotel in order to see if it would accommodate my intended large fundraiser that I was planning and would like to see the large convention dining areas – i was told that the person who could help was not available after 5pm…and suggested i come back another day. I told the receptionist that I would like to see some brochure with the available dining areas for a large fund raiser – she showed me a brochure and i looked it over and said that I would like to see ‘this room’ (which, of course was the largest room in the brochure) and she said that it was now being used for a major event. I said, ‘no problem, i’ll just put my head in and take a peek at the room’ and of course, she said it wasn’t possible and at that time, a ‘hyatt thug’ came over and asked if he could help. I told him that i was researching accommodations for a fund raiser and would like to see ‘this room’ in the brochure – of course, he, too, told me that it was not possible – so,
i asked if he would show me around to other rooms that would be good venues for my fund raiser – and he said ‘NO!’ the hotel is being used for a major event now – so, I said , ‘ok – i will just go to the ladies room down the hall – ‘ and he told me that i had to go to another hallway – and then, I commented that ‘gee, i notice that there are so many police officers here – is this a safe neighborhood? is this a crime scene? is the event here being held with criminals who require all this City of Richardson’s tax payer’s money to protect the criminals who are inside the great room that I cannot view?”
well,
you guessed it…I was escorted out by a very nice Anglo police officer and on the way out…I asked him if he enjoyed ‘protecting’ the people in that room who are out to destroy our American way of life…and wasn’t it enough to make one want to puke….well, he gave me a nice Texas smile and said, ‘ma’am, i can’t speak about this’….
well,
guess what?
WE CAN!!!!!!
Please stay tuned, as another gathering is being planned and y’all will know about it – as we join forces – Tea Party, GOP members, ACT!for America, church and synagogue affiliates and all strong Patriots! God Bless American and God Bless our Spiritual Homeland, Israel! Diane
Diane, our goal here was to be non-confrontational; I guess they felt the Bible you had tucked under one arm (a book the speakers stated they too believe in) was confrontational. That’s why Jim stopped and chatted with you. Eight police officers figured that three old folks and one middle-aged bloke were too much for them to handle even 30-50 feet from the entrance of the place (chatting with each other and not impeding or even interacting with any participants).
HOWEVER; I will disagree with you to some degree. They call God Allah; the Jews call God Jehovah, Islam is a religion and a way of life, so is Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. The primary unique differential is the the Islamic religion is based on a PRIMARY prophet who was a warrior and conqueror, attributes other religions do NOT have. That is my take on it. And the family I sponsor right now in Uganda… is Muslim (though I doubt they’ve been in a mosque for many months; not many of them out that way and the ones there are not Wahhabist. Kampala has a few Wahhabist mosques but have VERY small followings.
[...] Even though two people with tickets were turned away for being ‘non-Muslim’, one can”t ALWAYS tell one’s religion based on skin color, ethnic background or native language spoken. The following tapes are of Tariq Ramadan, the grandson of the founder of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. (Here is Ramadon’s Wikipedia entry; read carefully on the court cases that initially revoked his visas here- and, after Obama’s election, was restored, setting a dangerous precedence for subverting consular decisions, which are often based on sources that cannot be revealed). [...]
[...] As reported by the North Texas Tea Party [...]
[...] We warned told you about the ICNA’s sharia tour a few weeks ago in Muslims to defend sharia law in NY, NJ, Texas. Some folks in Texas found out first hand how sharia is starting to creep in America. via Hyatt of Richardson Enforces a Muslim-only Policy « North Texas Tea Party. [...]
[...] what the Muslims running this event did not want the public to hear. From Creeping Sharia via North Texas Tea Party: This evening, Wednesday, July 27, 2011, Dr. Tariq Ramadan (previously banned from the U.S – [...]
Racial & Religious profiling here! Boot out the Freedom Fighter for The Freedom Destroyer!?
Thank you Jim Bright for going and checking this out.
So it appears the Hyatt and 8 police officiers don’t want you around to watch the Muslims talk.
Not sure how your goal of ridiculing radical Muslims is going to work when even the police will not let you watch and hear what the Muslims are talking about.
Given how CAIR sues everyone in sight calling them Haters and Racists for pointing out the terrorist connections to CAIR; how are you going to succeed in ridiculing Muslims when CAIR bankrupts you with lawsuits.
Enquiring minds want to know.
[...] the sword. Peace, in Islamist’s terms offers no room for negotiations or live and let live. The tumultuous road to get into the event aside, the star performer, Ramadan, at the meeting, lived up to the [...]
[...] the sword. Peace, in Islamist’s terms offers no room for negotiations or live and let live. The tumultuous road to get into the event aside, the star performer, Ramadan, at the meeting, lived up to the [...]
[...] the sword. Peace, in Islamist’s terms offers no room for negotiations or live and let live. The tumultuous road to get into the event aside, the star performer, Ramadan, at the meeting, lived up to the [...]
[...] tumultuous road to get into the event aside, the star performer, Ramadan, at the meeting, lived up to the [...]
We started a Facebook group called Boycott Hyatt Hotels because of their support for Jihad and refusal to allow the Tea Party host an event calling it a ” hate speech “. please check it out