Muslim mom at NBA game to watch her child sing national anthem told to take off hijab

A Muslim mother at an NBA game to watch her child sing the national anthem was told by a ticketing employee to take off her hijab.

“Take that thing off,” the employee at the will call window told the mom, a Muslim advocacy group says.

Gazella Bensreiti received the demand to remove her head scarf at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado, when she went to pick up tickets for the game with other parents, students and staff from her daughter’s school, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Colorado. The elementary school choir was at the Denver Nuggets game on Nov. 5 to sing the national anthem, The Denver Post reported.

Bensreiti was told she couldn’t get into the game to see the performance without taking off her hijab, the group says.

“She was refused and subsequently subjected to public humiliation in front of staff, students and other parents, until her daughter became distraught, believing her mom would not be allowed in to see her perform,” according to a news release from CAIR.

In a Facebook post, Bensreiti wrote that she asked whether the employee would allow her to remove her hijab in private in front of a woman. The employee refused, Bensreiti wrote. She noted that five men in baseball caps had been in the line with her.

Then the employee went into an office and returned to wave Bensreiti through “without making eye contact or even acknowledging me as a human being, but ushered me like an animal.”

CAIR is urging the Pepsi Center to change its policy for religious attire at events.

A spokeswoman for Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Pepsi Center and the Denver Nuggets, said it was a misunderstanding that “a security agent didn’t recognize the Ms. Bensreiti was wearing a hijab,” according to the Denver Post.

“A supervisor quickly intervened, and Ms. Bensreiti entered,” the spokeswoman told the newspaper.

The company says its security screening procedures will be reviewed, and employees will be educated, KDVR reported.

“We have reached out to Ms. Bensreiti and look forward to engaging in honest discourse that leads to greater awareness and an opportunity to further celebrate the diversity that makes Denver such a special place,” the company wrote in a statement to the Denver TV station.

This story was originally published November 13, 2019 at 1:46 PM with the headline "Muslim mom at NBA game to watch her child sing national anthem told to take off hijab."