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November 3, 2005
Pray Ball!
My initial thought was to blog the story from this angle: "Some people are going to scream about this incident as a civil rights outrage, but what would they have had law enforcement do? Ex-President Bush was in the stadium along with 80,000 other people; they drew attention to themselves by praying in a group--something that people don't usually do at football games;** they were near a structurally important air duct; law enforcement approached them while this was going on and briefly checked it out; and that was the end of it."
But something about the story nagged at me: the cops did not allow the praying Muslims to return to their own seats, but reseated them in a different part of the stadium, sat nearby and watched them in the new seats, and then walked them to their cars at game's end. This struck me as inconsistent with the "just doing their jobs" angle from which I was seeing the story.
So I read the much fuller account of the incident in the Newark Star-Ledger. And there's more to it than the AP story reports.
The Muslim men were not approached by law enforcement while praying near the air duct. They prayed there briefly early in the first quarter (one of five daily prayers required by their faith) and then went to their seats. They sat there without incident through the rest of the first half, and through halftime. It was not until the beginning of the third quarter that the group of thirteen cops approached them and took them away, to the jeers of surrounding fans. They were then questioned for around a half hour, and the questions went beyond an investigation of what they'd been doing by the air duct in the first quarter. The cops asked them "about their faith, how often they pray, what mosque they attend," and then whether "they knew 'the Sheik,' a reference to Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman, the blind Egyptian cleric convicted for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing." They were not physically searched.
They asked to be returned to their seats, to show those who'd been jeering at their removal that they had every right to be there. The cops refused, though; they insisted on reseating them elsewhere in the stadium and in watching them during the few minutes of the fourth quarter that remained once they'd been resettled. Then they walked the men to their cars.
On balance, with a fuller sense of the facts, I still don't find the behavior of law enforcement to be outrageous, but I'm more troubled than I was upon reading the AP story. Is there anything that these men could have said or done to dispel the suspicion that descended on them solely because of their appearance and religion? Once they cops had finished questioning them for a half hour--about much more than just what they were doing during the first quarter--the cops should have been in a position to make a judgment about whether they were or were not suspicious. Obviously, though, the cops remained suspicious, even after the lengthy questioning. What was left to ground their suspicion, other than how the men looked? Why could they not be trusted to return to their own seats? If they were going to be watched, why couldn't they be watched in their own seats, rather than new ones? Why the escort out of the stadium at game's end?
I know, I know; GW Bush was in the stadium. It was an "abundance of caution." I get it. But it's worth noting that this "abundance of caution"--which produced a lengthy detention, some pretty intrusive questioning, and jeers from neighboring spectators, was grounded on ... nothing. Surely at some point in the interaction the cops were in a position to figure out that there was nothing there--other than the fact that the men were Muslims. Yet they kept at it.
**As I typed this, I realized that it's not at all uncommon for people to pray at football games. Players do it, and school districts litigate Establishment Clause cases so that whole stadiums full of people can do it. What was uncommon here was that the men were engaging in Muslim prayer.
Posted by Eric at November 3, 2005 6:52 AM
Comments
Regarding prayer at games: at Baltimore's Camden Yards, there is (or was, as of the last time I checked) a Jewish group that says the afternoon/evening prayers. I'm pretty sure that they meet at the kosher knish stand. Perhaps the fact that they meet regularly, and are therefore a known quantity, makes them unsuspicious (even though they are religious, bearded men!).
Whether or not it's an "outrage," the men were clearly deprived of the full value of their tickets without cause: the team owes them. And, if they don't want to get hit with lawsuits, well-grounded or not, they might want to consider working with the local Muslim community to regularize the prayer space, so that security doesn't get jumpy again.
Posted by: Jonathan Dresner at November 4, 2005 2:58 AM
I don't think this was reasonable police conduct, and I generally defer to the police on these matters:
They were taken to a room, where they said they were questioned by the FBI for half an hour about their faith, how often they pray, what mosque they attend. They were asked if they knew "the Sheik," a reference to Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman, the blind Egyptian cleric convicted for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Shaban said that at no point were they searched or asked what they might be carrying on them.
If they didn't have any weapons, they should have been let go. That would have made a helluva lot more sense than asking them if they knew "the Sheik."
Posted by: Mark at November 4, 2005 9:35 AM
I realized that it's not at all uncommon for people to pray at football games.
Posted by: Andy Vance at November 4, 2005 9:53 AM
No, the salient fact was not that they were praying Muslim prayer. It was that they were seen praying near the air duct. If you saw a group of Christian fundamentalists apart from the main body of people, praying near an air duct during a football game, would you wonder if they knew Rev. Wildman or Eric Robert Rudolph?
The real solution to this, IMHO, is for the stadium to provide a Muslim prayer lounge as a religious accomodation and as an apology for this incident.
BTW, seeing Christian fundamentalists praying around an air duct would actually worry me more. Muslims generally try to find a suitable spot for laying down a prayer rug and facing Mecca. But Christian fundamentalists are likely either to pray silently in their seats or to make a public show of praying.
Posted by: DK at November 10, 2005 12:10 PM
"If you saw a group of Christian fundamentalists apart from the main body of people, praying near an air duct during a football game, would you wonder if they knew Rev. Wildman or Eric Robert Rudolph?"
Absolutely not.
Posted by: Eric at November 10, 2005 12:17 PM
How long till Muslims demand all places have this?As they continue to force their way of life on everyone.Would you go to a movie theater that had a Muslims prayer room?I wouldnt.If they want to pray they should stay home.
Posted by: Chris at December 2, 2005 11:58 PM