An update to this story. There is an upside to this bit of dhimmitude, and it isn't only that I am looking forward to the opening of the Giants Stadium Chapel, which I am sure will be an inspiring place for Christians to pray and meditate during lulls in the action on the field. It is also that the existence of this prayer area takes away any excuse any group of Muslims may have to congregate in restricted areas, as the men who provoked this were doing. One may presume, or at least hope, that such a group gathering in a restricted area, instead of in the Muslim prayer area, in the future will be regarded with the suspicion it deserves.
From AP, with thanks to all who sent this in:
NEWARK, N.J. -- The New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority says it will provide a special area for anyone who wants a place to pray while at Giants Stadium or the Continental Airlines Arena -- a reaction to Muslim groups' outcries after several fans who prayed at a New York Giants game were detained and questioned by the FBI in September.Sohail Mohammed, the lawyer for the Totowa-based American Muslim Union, met Sunday with officials from the sports authority, the FBI and private companies that work at the Meadowlands to educate them about Islam and the cultural and religious practices of Muslims.
Five Muslim men attending the Sept. 19 Giants game against the New Orleans Saints were detained and questioned for about a half hour by the FBI after they were observed praying at the stadium. The men claimed they were singled out because of their faith, but the FBI said the men were flagged by stadium security because they were in a sensitive area near the stadium's main air intake duct.
Former President George H.W. Bush was on hand that night as part of a fundraising campaign he and former President Bill Clinton were leading for victims of Hurricane Katrina....
George Zoffinger, the sports authority president, said space will be set aside at the stadium and the arena for anyone of any faith who wishes to pray. The exact spots have not yet been designated, he said."I think we did this thing exactly right," Zoffinger said. "We took it seriously. We did not like the connotation that we were profiling. We weren't.
"With this agreement, we hope we've created an atmosphere where anyone can come to our facilities and feel comfortable," he said....
Mohammed said sports authority staff said they also may extend prayer areas to the Meadowlands Racetrack.
"I told them you won't get many Muslims using that area because gambling is forbidden in Islam, but I understand there is quite a bit of praying going on among the track patrons while the horses are running," he joked.
Haw haw.
"I told them you won't get many Muslims using that area because gambling is forbidden in Islam, but I understand there is quite a bit of praying going on among the track patrons while the horses are running," he joked.
Nonsense. They love horse racing and camel racing in the Arab world
Sports are, in general, haram not halal in Islam. See al-Qaradawi. So how is it that true Muslims are willing to violate Muslim rules? Some things are permitted, as long as they are considered part of quasi-military training for the Jihad. Thus, volleyball and tennis would not be good. Wrestling on the other hand -- that fits right in. Perhaps football, given its violent nature, counts as okay, becuse all that violence is somehow connected to Jihad-preparation. Probably hockey, too. But not baseball. No, not baseball, even though from time to time a ball hits a pitcher, a bat hits a catcher, and a runner's cleats have been known to nip the leg of the eager first baseman.
Hugh:
Seems to me that I recall reading not long ago about the parameters placed on Saudi youth by some cleric or another that confirms exactly what you suggest -- that any athletic pursuits should be training for jihad; anything less is haram.
Apparently we are supposed to believe that they could not find a quieter, cleaner place to prey (oops, pray) than in front of a stadium air intake.
A prayer room located in a publicly financed structure (airport, stadum, university, etc.) must be open to all faiths at all times to avoid unconstitutional establishment. Muslims are only ahead in this phase of the battle of public display of religion because of the squeaky wheel theory. As Jew, Hindu, Christian and especially Rastafarian, we are all too mellow. We may squawk privately, but we do not squeak publicly.
Next time you are stuck in an airport with a few hours of layover to spare, avoid the greasy pizza slice and beer, but cleanse the body and soul and head to the prayer room. In the fortuitous chance that it just happens to coincide with the local Muslim prayer time and Muslims are present, remember you have equal rights to use of the prayer room.
You do not need make a public spectacle of prayer, indeed to do so I know goes against Christian teaching (citation omitted). However if you are asked to leave or barred entry, collect names and statements. The rest is up to your attorney.
They should have a place to pray.....At home or in the Mosk....Or, they could simply sit in their seats at the stadium and pray, and save the salami, salami, bologna bowing for when they get back to their house......
A model for this prayer-room, open to those of all faiths, can be found at Fiumicino Airport. A prayer-room open to everyone: Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, and any Christians who care to come. The result is that Muslims, detesting the presence of non-Muslims, or a hint of it, will not be delighted. But what can they do? Admit that they cannot stand the presence of Infidels, in their own little corner, or perhaps before or after the Muslims pray? They won't give that as the reason, so they will not be able to produce a plausible reason. Work with the material.
If sport is haram, I wonder what the Islamic position is on mental 'sports'.
Chess, we already know about:
And Allah knows best. But what about crosswords and Scrabble? And are Muslims permitted to wrestle with a fiendish sudoku?
Back to physical sports, one of the many things I don't understand about cricket - in fact I don't know what cricket is, only what is not cricket - is the fact that Pakistan play it. I wonder if there have been any fatwas about it. Does cricket count as jihad? Anyway, for anyone who cares, here's the latest from BBC Sport - looks like a draw.
What the hell does any of this this mean? Why do they keep stopping for tea? Is it all made up, like 'Mornington Crescent'?
Lords-Cricket-Grounds-a-mercy. A transatlantic gift of words, for which one offers a colonist's thanks-giving.
"Midwicket" makes one think of a town in Rhode Island.
"Take out his off stump" makes one think of Long John Silver.
"the ideal opening partner, with some swing and variety" makes one think -- well, you can use your imagination.
Interested writes:
"If sport is haram, I wonder what the Islamic position is on mental 'sports'.
Chess, we already know about:
'Whosoever plays chess, it is like soiling his hands in the blood of swine.'"
No sports, no chess, no art which depicts people.
How about music? What is the music has lyrics which talk about haram activities, like seduction, or love?
Wonderful, humane society these guys want to create. Islam is a plague!
Interested,
the following "explanation" of cricket is old but makes me grin every time I read it...
It's quite easy. Both sides dress all in white for easy identification. Each side has 11 players, except for the 12th man who doesn't play. At the start of the game a coin is tossed, the winner of the toss decides who is in first. The team that's in goes out, while the team that's out goes out to try and get the team that's in out. Two players from the team that's in plays until one of them is out and another player then goes in. Once all of the players (but one) is out, that team is out except for the player that is not out. When the team that's in are out, both teams go in, and then the team that was out is now in, so they go out and the team that was in but are now out go in to try to get the team that was out but are now in out. When both teams have been in and out twice the team with the most runs wins. Unless it's a draw.
What a wonderful description.
Apparently, in the Pakistan match/test/test match/whatever 'bad light ended the day'. Outside cricket, of course, this never happens.
The main point of cricket is to confuse foreigners. This it has in common with Cockney rhyming slang, names like 'St John' and 'Featherstone-Haugh', and the panel game Mornington Crescent.
There is a bastardised version of the latter in which the rules are simply made up. However, experts play using the Finsbury Rules. Abu Hamza - was an enthusiast of this particular form of the game, but was disqualified for abuse of the Dollis Hill Loop. Sheikh Qaradawi is particularly proficient in his use of Trumpington's variation, which is bad luck if you are in knip. (Once Tufnell Park has been declared, a move must be repeated via Cockfosters unless two or more players are in knip, pronounced knid.)
Another way to confuse foreigners, including Americans is to say, 'We must do lunch.' This is London for 'Good bye.' It confused me at first as I am from the North, where we have dinner at lunchtime and tea in the evenings, but I've got the hang of it now.
All of this is as much use in the fight against global jihad as a chocolate teapot.
Okay, we New Mexicans confess we have a pressing need: how does one pronounce the name "Featherstone-Haugh"? And if "St. John" is normally pronounced "Sinjin" or "Sin-gin" as in "Sin-gin" Philby, who converted to Islam long before it was the easy popular thing for Western misfits to do (his son, being more traditional in his taste, chose Marxism as the vehicle to express his alienation and mental desarroi), surely it is not pronounced that way always and everwhere, is it? For example, "Awake, St. John, and leave all meaner things" of Alexander Pope (a name which in America we are taught to pronounce "Alexander Pope"), requires not the trochaic Sinjin but the iambic-hovering-on-the-spondaic "St. John" (as in, "St. John's College, or the Gospel of).
And obviously we are going to need to know a lot more about Mornington Crescent.
Featherstone-haugh? (*Monocle falls out and drops in tea.*). This, as any fule kno, is pronounced 'Fanshaw'. It is not usually hyphenated, but written as one word, 'Featherstonehaugh', in which case the pronunciation is much more intuitive.
Traditionally pronounced 'Sin Gin', these days, the name St John is often pronounced Sinjun, the 'u' being a 'schwa', which I don't know how to write, but which denotes the unstressed vowel. A comparison of Christmas messages over the years confirms that even the Queen's vowels have been drifting daintily down the social scale, and the common or garden schwa is now heard as often from the Cholmondesley-Smythes as it was once from your chums the Smiths.
Regarding Mornington Crescent, the basic principle is simple. The art of the game is to make a move that makes it impossible (ideally) to move to one of the pages on which Mornington Crescent appears on the next move or in three moves time, or even in five moves time, ie to stop the opposition arriving at Mornington Crescent.
That much is obvious, so it is just a question of which set of rules. Doubles? No shuffles? Tottenham Court Road is usually a good place to start, avoiding an Amersham reversal. Beginners are allowed to use an A to Z, (pronounced A to Zed).
The men claimed they were singled out because of their faith, but the FBI said the men were flagged by stadium security because they were in a sensitive area near the stadium's main air intake duct.
How easy is it to scope out a future target and then lamely say gee willikers -- we're just here to pray? I say they're drooling over the possibility of causing massive casualities by sending something through the stadium's main intake duct.
"We did not like the connotation that we were profiling." so said Mr. Zoffinger, the sports authority president.
The fact that he has to say that, and accede to the demands of Muslim groups who complained, could not be a clearer proof that PC Leftism dominates our sociopolitical culture. Sadly, one could adduce thousands of other examples.
and then lamely say gee willikers
I'd probably say that gamely rather than lamely, but I'd rather not say it at all, as I don't know what it means.
Though it was a bit off topic, as a former player, I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion of cricket. I don't know how the jihadists can play it, though, because it comes closer to being a «mental» sport than a physical one!