US mayor apologies after Muslim children kicked out of swimming pool over religious dress

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A US city has apologised after members of an Arabic summer camp were kicked out of a public swimming pool over their conservative clothing.

Tahsiyn A Ismaa’eel brought campers from her Arabic summer enrichment programme to their local pool in Wilmington, Delaware, last week, as she has done for years. Some of the students wore cotton shirts, shorts, and headscarves in accordance with their religious beliefs – something Ms Ismaa'eel told local news outlets had never caused a problem before.

But this time, she said, a pool employee asked the group to leave, citing a rule against wearing cotton in the pool.

"There’s nothing posted that says you can’t swim in cotton," Ms Ismaa’eel told Delaware Online. "At the same time, there are other kids with cotton on...I asked, 'Why are my kids being treated differently'?"

Ms Ismaa’eel said she was later approached by a city police officer who pressured the group to leave, saying there were people waiting outside to get in.

The office of Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki initially sided with the pool employees, citing a city rule that states all swimmers must be in “proper swimming attire”. The rule does not specifically prohibit wearing cotton.

The incident sparked outcry from Muslim groups and local activists, who claimed the children were being discriminated against and made to feel unwelcome because of their religion. Others noted that Americans are entitled under the law to reasonable religious accommodations when using public facilities.

Mr Purzycki eventually retracted his statement and apologised to the children, saying his office had “made a mess” of the situation.

“We should be held accountable for what happened and how poorly we assessed this incident, Mr Purzycki said in a statement. “I apologise to the children who were directed to leave a city pool because of the religious-required clothing they were wearing.”

He added: “We also referred to vaguely-worded pool policies to assess and then justify our poor judgement, and that was also wrong.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) thanked the mayor for his apology, and praised his attempts to meet with the camp director and children personally.

“We also welcome his commitment to ensuring that no swimmers in his city are barred from access to public pools because of their faith,” CAIR spokeswoman Zainab Chaudry said in a statement.

At least one person, however, wasn’t satisfied with the apology.

"I said why are you apologising?" asked Glenda Pinkett, a seasonal employee at the pool, according to Delaware Online. "...Nobody was discriminated. As I did with all our patrons, we asked them to not wear cotton.”

Ms Ismaa'eel said many of her students are low-income, and cannot afford special religious swimming gear. She added, however, that she had received several offers to cover the cost of her students’ swimwear since their story was published.

It is difficult to discern exactly how often Muslim Americans are discriminated against because of their attire. In its most recent report, CAIR found a 17 per cent increase in bias-motivated incidents against American Muslims from 2016 to 2017, and a 15 per cent increase in the number of hate crimes in that time period. Multiple studies have found that Muslim women who wear a hijab bear the brunt of this harassment.

A Denver-area woman told local outlets she was turned away from a public swimming pool in 2014 for wearing long pants and a shirt in accordance with her beliefs. The city claimed the prohibition on "inappropriate" swimwear was a safety measure.

Naveed Baqir, executive director of the Delaware Council on Global and Muslim Affairs, said his family had given up on public swimming pools long ago.

"For my own children, I’d rather pay the money and be treated like everyone else rather than putting myself in an anxiety situation," he said.