It's not young, it's not just for men, and it's not Christian. But it is an association of sorts.

Private Sharia Swimming for Muslim Women In Public Facilities

Stand Firm by Jackie 

 

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Creeping Sharia has an interesting article on a Minnesota YMCA that has started allowing Muslim girls to have closed swimming sessions.

Apparently reporter Nicole Norfleet cannot bring herself to pen the word sharia. But that’s exactly what this is.
To better accommodate girls like Dhamuke, the downtown St. Paul YMCA, in partnership with the St. Paul Police Department, has started a swim group for Somali-American girls. The group, which began in October, is serving as an outlet for girls ages 5 to 17 to learn the basics of swimming.
Their being Somali is somewhat insignificant. If they were atheists, Christians, Jews or Hindu’s from Somalia – they’d swim with the rest of us.
Special considerations have to be made to address modesty concerns so that the Muslim girls can swim and not reveal too much of themselves.
To abide by…sharia law.
During the hourlong swim practice, all other swimmers are cleared out of the pool. The men’s locker room is locked. Female life guards are brought in. The pool, which is on the building’s third floor, has no windows so they don’t have to worry about prying eyes from outside.
St. Paul Police Chief Tom Smith had discussions with Britts to let the Y know that, through the department’s connections with the Somali-American community, they had learned that such a group was needed.
“I think this is just a great opportunity for them to learn basic skills that we take for granted,” said Sgt. Jennifer O’Donnell, who has worked with the Somali community regularly during her time with the department.

To be honest, Minnesota is not blazing a new trail here.  They are simply following in the footsteps ofVirginia, Tennessee, Maryland, Harvard, MIT - to name but a few.

Other than the obvious issue with this practice, what about the more far-reaching ones such as:

1.  Why are gyms allowed to close for exclusive Muslim only swim classes but bakery shops are not allowed to refuse service to anyone?
2.  Why are tax funded entities such as the fire department allowed to participate with government paid resources?
3.  If a Christian group were to request a closed time where they could swim without participation from non-Christians, would the request be allowed?  Could they rely on the local fire department to provide transportation?
There are lots more questions but you probably see where this is going.