Richardson stood by his decision Saturday even after a USA representative checked with the league during halftime and was told Khalil could play the second half, according to the Heat's assistant coach.
The league's rules allow Khalil to play while wearing a scarf, Villaizan said.
He presented reporters with a 2002 memorandum that covers the topic of players 'bound by religious law to wear such head coverings.'
Players are permitted to wear such coverings.
The referees are supervised by the Florida State Referees, Villaizan said.
Ahmed Bedier, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations, said his group would file a complaint asking the referees association to investigate the incident.
Villaizan said the USA board also would discuss the matter at its meeting next month.
'We could possibly just not have the referee work for us anymore,' he said.-Tampa Tribune
'There was nothing we could do,' said Frank Villaizan, president of the USA board. 'Once the referee steps on the field, he is the governing body of that field. He runs the game, and we respect that.'
So they respect a "governing body" being an obvious Islamophobe? Even when he was proven wrong, he still upheld his "ruling" as if it was written in stone. Who was it bothering? Is she on the "known terrorists" list? Did she match a hi-jacker or suicide bomber? If none of the latter, then what was this guys problem, and more than that, what is the league doing supporting him?! More disturbing is the fact that if this ref had not allowed any other minority to play a game for a racial bias this would have had national attention.
So I thought to myself, what about the rest of the international scene, is Islamophobia down-played often? Then I come across an article in my research that was written this last Saturday by Simon Kuper for the Financial Times, here is an excerpt:
[UK] RACIST FOOTBALL FANS GET KICKS FROM ABUSING MUSLIM PLAYERS
Saturday 13 Oct, 2007
Here are some sounds from the playing fields of Europe on an average Sunday: "Bin Laden! You know where he is!" "Have you got a first-aid kit or is that a suicide bomb?"
No, it's not what Italy's Marco Materazzi told France's Zinedine Zidane in the World Cup final. It's what a Muslim football team in Luton, England hears all the time.
British football's annual "action week" against discrimination starts on Thursday, and this year it should consider taking a new tack. All the conferences I have attended on racism in football have focused on abuse of black players or Jews, and quite right too. But racism has its fashions. Since September 11, Muslims have become "the new blacks". In French polls, twice as many respondents now declare antipathy towards Muslims as towards blacks or Jews. In Britain in 2005, a survey for the Home Office asked people which groups they thought experienced more racism than five years previously. Even before the London bombings of July 7, nearly 12 times more respondents cited Muslims than named any other group.
Islamophobia
Yet Islamophobia is generally ignored. Nobody ever gets punished for it. After Newcastle supporters repeatedly chanted "Mido's got a bomb" at Middlesbrough's Egyptian striker in August, only one person was disciplined: Mido himself. He got a yellow card for running to the jeering fans with his finger to his lips after scoring. No fans were arrested. The editor of one Newcastle fanzine explained the chants weren't racist: "They were just a way of winding the opposition up, but they didn't work as Mido scored."
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