Muslim girl kicked from soccer game

A Canadian soccer referee, a Muslim himself, ejected a girl who tried to play while wearing a hijab (more on Islamic headgear here.) Wearing any headgear is against the rules. From The Sydney Morning Herald:

The ejection of an 11-year-old Canadian Muslim girl from a soccer game has reignited Quebec's debate over the "reasonable accommodation" of minorities, even prompting comments from Premier Jean Charest.

Quebec's soccer federation said Asmahan Mansour of Ottawa was given the choice of taking off her hijab or not to play in a Sunday tournament in nearby Laval.

The federation says wearing the hijab - an Islamic veil or head scarf - violates a no-headgear rule set down by the sport's governing body for safety reasons.

But others have slammed the referee's decision, saying it is just another example of how Quebec is trying to get immigrants to toe a cultural line. The Quebec Soccer Federation noted the referee was also a Muslim.

Of course they're trying to get people to "toe a cultural line." This isn't limited to no-headgear at soccer games, it also includes other cultural problems with Muslims, like female castration, general oppression of women, honor killings, stoning unwed mothers to death, and so on and so forth.

Maria Mansour, the girl's mother, said she was shocked and saddened by the incident, which she said had humiliated her daughter.

She was likely more humiliated by being forced to wear a head covering. Sadly, many Muslim women are so afraid, or have been sufficiently programmed, that they actually want to hide themselves, lest Muslim men lose control and attack them. We wouldn't want a rape or an honor killing.

She told CBC Radio that she thought the incident was racially motivated.

"Strongly, I do think so, because soccer is soccer whether it's in Ontario or Quebec or Europe and it's not right at all to not allow a Muslim girl who's proud of her religion to play soccer, a sport she loves so much," Mansour said.

"It took a lot out of me to see my daughter in the middle being humiliated in front of a lot of people."

Oh, brother. This family moves from the Middle East or some other Muslim area to Canada, and knows absolutely nothing about Canadian culture and customs? Nothing? And they don't care, and are even indignant when asked to fit in? Honeybunch, your daughter was humiliated every time she went in public with an oppressive bag on her head.

Even though a Muslim referee made the call against Mansour, that is irrelevant to Valmie Ouellet, the co-ordinator of regional technical services for the Quebec Soccer Federation. The referee was simply enforcing the rules set down by the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), she says.

"We're simply the ones to apply that rule put forth by FIFA," she said.

She pointed out jewellery is forbidden as well.

"That's in the same law and if I was a fervent Catholic and I wanted to wear my chain and my crucifix around my neck for the game, I wouldn't be allowed to do so for the same safety reasons."

Precisely. Now let's see if Canada caves in to Muslim pressure groups, and changes FIFA rules just for one whiney group -- like they did with the case of knives in schools (Al Jazeera was all over that one, naturally.)

Via LGF.