Two young ladies from the Robert F. Hall Catholic
School in Caledon, Ontario, Canada, recently
won the right to play on the boys soccer team,
and were helping their teammates achieve a
three to one lead over their opponents from
ISNA Private Islamic High School, when at
the half time break a coach from ISNA voiced
his concern.
Apparently, the team had assumed they would
be playing against a team composed entirely
of male players.
As the ISNA coach, Essa Abdool-Karim, said,
“We were a little bit caught off guard because
we assumed it was a senior boys league and
exclusively for boys."
However, the three governing bodies; Ontario
Federation of School Athletic Associations,
South Western Ontario Secondary Schools Athletic
Association and ROPSSAA, all have the same
rule.
“If a sport activity is not available for
a female on a girls’ team, she is eligible
to participate on a boys’ team following
a successful tryout.”
The girls sat out the second half to avoid
a forfeit by the Muslim team which might have
actually counted as too little a win to allow
their team to advance, and their team went
on to beat the ISNA team, six to one.
Explaining why the Muslims had a problem competing
against girls, the coach responded, "Free
mixing is generally something we do not do,
more so out of respect than anything."
The annual Everybody Draw Mohammad Day event,
which started as a way to stand up for free
expression in a world where radicals kill
cartoonists, has been hijacked in recent years
by radicals who fear for the loss of a way
of life that probably never really was.
This year, in Phoenix, Arizona, a former marine
named Jon Ritzheimer organized a rally outside
of a mosque where Elton Simpson and Nadir
Soofi, who were killed as they attacked a
previous Draw Mohammad event in Garland Texas.
Ritzheimer urged attendees to come armed and
in bullet proof vests and he sold T-shirts
at the site which read F Islam.
Police set up barriers and donned riot gear
as the sizable group and an equally sizable
counter protest shouted at one another.
Police estimate that some 500 people gathered
in total, and there were no reports of violence.
In fact, at least one of Ritzheimer ‘s supporters,
a man named Jason Ledger accepted an invitation
to attend a prayer service in the mosque,
from which he emerged with a change-of-heart.
Said Ledger, "Out of respect for the Islamic
people, knowing what I know now, because I
have talked to them and spoke to them, no
I would not do that again, just because I
don't want to offend or hurt those people."
In a statement released in advance of a visit
by President Barack Obama to a Miami Catholic
shrine favored by Cuban Americans, White House
National Security Council spokeswoman, Bernadette
Meehan, said, “The president is visiting
the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity in Miami
to pay his respects to the Cuban-American
diaspora that worship there.
He will honor the sacrifices that Cuban-Americans
have made in their pursuit of liberty and
opportunity, as well as their extraordinary
contributions to our country."
The statue of the Virgin Mary which fishermen
found floating on the Cuban coast is known
as Our Lady of Charity and is a replica of
El Cobre shrine near Santiago, Cuba.
The visit came as a surprise for Rev. Juan
Rumin Dominguez, the rector of the shrine,
and a Cuban exile, who said, “Only in the
United States that’s possible.
For me it was an honor and a sign that we
live in a free country.”
An hour before the President’s arrival,
an advance team of secret agents interrupted
a staff meeting to inform Dominguez that the
president was nearby and wanted to pay a visit.
It was a calculated PR coup as the President
attempts to bridge the discord between those
in the Cuban-American population who wish
to see relations between the US and Cuba normalized
and those who do not.
