c. 2006 Religion News Service
University Denies Dismissing Players Because of Faith
PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) An attorney for New Mexico State University on Tuesday (Aug. 29) denied that three football players were removed from the team because they were Muslims and said the school “did nothing wrong.”
Bruce Kite, the university’s general counsel, was responding to a federal civil rights complaint filed on behalf of the three men, who currently play at Portland State University. Kite said the suit stemmed from one player’s demotion from the 2005 New Mexico State starting lineup.
Kite promised to contest the suit, which was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. “We’ll file the appropriate paperwork, but our position is that we did nothing wrong and we deny the allegations,” Kite said.
PSU running back Mu’Ammar Ali, the central figure in the suit, declined comment, saying, “I can’t really talk about it, it’s such a contained thing.”
The suit contends that Ali and cousins Vincent and Anthony Thompson were dismissed from the New Mexico State team in 2005 because of their Muslim faith. Ali transferred to Portland State last year, had an impressive 2006 spring practice and was expected to be the Vikings’ No. 1 running back this season until he was injured. The Thompsons, twin brothers who were not on scholarship at New Mexico State, joined the PSU program as junior walk-ons this fall.
Both Vincent Thompson, a wide receiver who is planning to change his name to Mika’il Ali, and Anthony Thompson, a defensive back who is planning to change his name to Salah Ali, waved off questions during a team practice.
The suit stems from a complaint the ACLU submitted to New Mexico State’s Office of Institutional Equity last fall on behalf of Ali. The ACLU asked for an apology to the team from coach Hal Mumme at the time and reinstatement of Ali’s scholarship for the 2006-07 school year.
Among the claims in the federal lawsuit are violations of constitutional rights and violations of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It seeks compensatory and punitive damages for revoking Mu’Ammar Ali’s scholarship for the 2006-07 school year.
The suit said Mumme initiated a practice during 2005 spring drills of having the team recite the Lord’s Prayer after each workout. During the prayers, Ali and the Thompsons would move to the side, pray together and recite passages from the Quran. The suit also claims that Mumme questioned Ali about his attitudes toward al-Qaida.
The ACLU said it moved forward with a suit because it was unsatisfied with the university’s response to the original complaint.
“We were pretty shocked and pretty disappointed because there are some large facts that would raise obvious concerns: the Lord’s Prayer issue and the fact that three of the four Muslims on the team had been kicked off,” said Peter Simonson, executive director of the New Mexico ACLU.
_ Norm Maves Jr. and Daniel Uthman
Coach OKs Hockey Player’s Sabbath Absences
QUEBEC CITY (RNS) Hockey may be a religion in Canada, but another religion is playing a major role in the life of one talented 17-year-old player.
Benjamin Rubin, an Orthodox Jew from Montreal, was among a handful of players selected for the Quebec Ramparts, a team in the Major Junior division that is seen as a steppingstone to the National Hockey League.
But Rubin has made it clear that he will miss at least half the team’s games, which fall either on Friday night or Saturday _ the Jewish Sabbath, when work and play are forbidden. And that’s all right with the team’s general manager.
“It’s fun to see someone who knows what he wants,” Patrick Roy, a legendary former goalkeeper for the Montreal Canadiens, told CBC News. “We believe that he has good potential and we’re certainly ready to allow him to stand up for what he believes in. That’s what we want from our players.”
Roy said he picked Rubin for his ability.
“He’s got skills. He’s a fast skater. He has a great shot, I mean a really good wrist shot.”
Rubin has been playing hockey since he was 3, but never on the Jewish Sabbath. Now, he’ll miss between 35 and 40 of the Ramparts’ 70 games this coming season.
“My religion means more to me than anything,” he told a Canadian broadcaster.
Rubin, whose prospects already look good, is not discounting shedding his religious commitments if the NHL comes calling.
“It’s going to be hard but I’m planning to go as far as I can by keeping with my religion, which is a big thing. Who knows when I’m older? It’ll be my decision.”
_ Ron Csillag
Uninsured Losses Reach $120 Million for New Orleans Archdiocese
NEW ORLEANS (RNS) Archbishop Alfred Hughes has disclosed a new, much higher estimate of uninsured property damage to the churches, schools and other buildings of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.
The estimate of uninsured flood damage to the archdiocese’s 1,274 buildings now stands at $120 million, far more than the $84 million the archdiocese estimated last spring, when it released a plan to temporarily reorganize worship and parish life among dozens of flooded church parishes.
Hughes said Monday (Aug. 28) the archdiocese expects to spend about $52 million just to repair churches and schools that are serving as temporary hosts to their closed neighbors.
He said Catholic agencies and ministries throughout the country have donated or committed about three-quarters of that amount. But Hughes said he has told local pastors they will have to try to raise the balance, about $13 million, on their own.
He said the archdiocese urged pastors to apply for aid under the Bush-Clinton Katrina fund, a $129 million private fund-raising effort that set aside $25 million for damaged churches in Louisiana and Mississippi. He said the archdiocese was ineligible to apply for the money, but parishes could do so individually.
Hughes estimated the archdiocese’s total property losses at $225 million. Of that, $80 million in wind-related damage was fully insured. As for flood insurance, the archdiocese carried only $25 million, he said.
“The reason is the same that many people did not carry (adequate) flood insurance _ that it was so expensive it would be unrealistic for us to insure all the properties.”
In addition, he said, “we anticipated that amount of insurance was the likely amount we’d need if a storm hit the usual areas that had been flood-damaged in the past.”
Hughes said the archdiocese has doubled its wind-storm coverage, but “we are not able to find any carrier yet who will offer us even the possibility of flood insurance for the future.”
Since the storm, 113 of 142 Catholic parishes have reopened across Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, Plaquemines, St. Tammany, St. Charles, St. John the Baptist and Washington parishes, Hughes said. In addition, the archdiocese has reopened 88 of its 107 schools, he said.
Hughes said the regional church expects a budget deficit of about $4.7 million in the fiscal year that began a few weeks ago. However, some of that may be defrayed by proceeds from a collection that was scheduled last Sunday among Catholic churches nationwide.
_ Bruce Nolan
Quote of the Day: Loraine Sundquist, owner of former polygamist compound
(RNS) “What struck me most is when one of them said to me, `You know we’re really no different than your society. We’re just honest about our affairs, and we take care of our babies and our girlfriends.”’
_ Loraine Sundquist, recalling to The Washington Post (Aug. 30) a conversation with one of polygamist Rulon and Warren Jeffs’ wives. Warren Jeffs is known as the Prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a splinter group of the Mormon Church. He was taken into custody Monday (Aug. 28) and is facing multiple charges of sexual crimes against minors.
KRE/PH END RNS
