MUSLIM WOMAN SAYS MISSOURI GUN RANGE TURNED HER AWAY FOR WAERING HIJAB

“I’ve encountered racism before, but it was never to the point that someone has told me to remove my scarf in order to enter a facility to do any type of activity like this,” she said.

Representatives of the national office and the Kansas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) requested the investigation during a news conference on Facebook Thursday morning.

Bren Brown, Frontier Justice’s president, denied that Barakat was discriminated against.

Rather, she was asked to adhere to a dress code that is applied to all patrons equally, Brown said. The dress code prohibits head coverings other than a forward-facing baseball cap on the range for safety reasons.

“It saddens us that anyone would say we are not inclusive, given that we serve all races and religions every single day in all of our stores,” Brown said in a written statement. ” We pride ourselves on this fact, and we strongly believe in America and the second amendment that is for every single American. Period.”

The incident occurred during the afternoon on New Year’s Day when Barakat went with her husband to Frontier Justice. At the time of the visit, she was wearing a hijab in accordance to her religious belief.

Her husband had been there multiple times and has had no issues.

“He wanted to take me there for a fun experience; instead we experienced racism and discrimination,” she said.

The couple enjoy going to gun ranges and had visited others without any issues with her hijab. But when Barakat and her husband approached the cashier, she was told that she must remove her hijab to go into the gun range.

“We were kinda both confused and honestly really shocked to hear this,” Barakat said.

Barakat told the employee that she couldn’t remove her scarf because of her religion.

The employee pulled up the dress code policy on a computer and said, “hats, caps, bandanna, or any other head covering will be removed in the facility, except baseball caps facing forward.”

The employee had the gun range manager come over, who said the dress code was for her safety and that gun particles could come back and burn her and her scarf.

When Barakat tried to explain that she had been to other gun ranges before and that her hijab had never been a problem, the manager replied, “This is not other gun ranges. This is their gun grange and this is their policy,” Barakat said.

The couple ended up leaving.

“Clearly they were not going to let us shoot and I didn’t want to waste any more time,” Barakat said.

She checked Google for Frontier Justice and found reviews from other Muslim women, some who were friends and others she personally knows, who also said they had been discriminated against at Frontier Justice for different reasons, including that the hijab hides a person’s identity.

“To have this happen to me personally was very sad and frustrating and I would never want anyone to go through what I went through,” she said. “It saddens me that this is America. That this is the norm. And we must change that. It is unacceptable.”

During Barakat’s visit, no one cited religion or any of her personal attributes as a barrier to access to the range, according to the statement from Frontier Justice. She was invited to stay in the store and shop, but would not be allowed on the range unless she complied with the safety rules.

“We cannot have a head covering on the range that could potentially catch brass and cause an adverse and unsafe movement of a person holding a firearm,” the company said. “There are hundreds of videos of persons on a range that have brass hit their skin, who then flinch and have killed bystanders because of the uncontrolled action in response to the hot brass.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a hoodie or a head scarf, potential hazard is there and as a business catering to the public, we cannot assume this risk.”

Zanah Ghalawanji, CAIR National staff attorney, said that Frontier Justice’s action violates the Civil Rights Act by refusing service to Barakat unless she removed her hijab.

“We have this law because historically Black Americans were excluded from or segregated in restaurants, motels, theaters and other public places,” Ghalawanji said. “This law prevents public places from sending us back to a time in history were certain groups of people are treated as lesser and prohibits public places from discrimination and segregation.”

Frontier Justice made it clear to Barakat when they excluded her family and other Muslim women from the gun range that Muslim women are not welcomed in their establishment, Ghalawanji said.

“Frontier Justice, you know they say they value faith, family and freedom — that appears to be their motto — but their actions tell us that they have shown otherwise,” she said.

In addition to asking that the Justice Department investigate Frontier Justice, CAIR is asking that Frontier Justice accommodate Muslim women who wear the hijab and implement policies that specifically allow for it and other religious head coverings to be worn in the facility.

Moussa Elbayoumy, the board chair of CAIR Kansas, said that while they appreciate that Kansas and the Kansas City communities have embraced them as a faith group, there are still a minority of people who exhibit xenophobia and do not accept of Muslims.

He said that they had received reports from others about Muslims being denied service at Frontier Justice around the same time. The concern is that the denial of service was not based on any legitimate safety concerns.

Rather, “it’s meant to exclude Muslim women and other Muslims from exercising their rightful rights and legal rights,” Elbayoumy said.

The civil rights organization is asking anyone else who was discriminated against to come forward.