{"id":185610,"date":"2014-09-30T20:20:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-01T01:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2014\/09\/30\/silly-rabbit-religious-freedom-is-just-for-christians\/"},"modified":"2014-09-30T20:20:00","modified_gmt":"2014-10-01T01:20:00","slug":"silly-rabbit-religious-freedom-is-just-for-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2014\/09\/30\/silly-rabbit-religious-freedom-is-just-for-christians\/","title":{"rendered":"Silly Rabbit, Religious Freedom is Just for Christians"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><a href=\"http:\/\/i990.photobucket.com\/albums\/af27\/msaroff\/YCKj71.jpg\" rel=\"lytebox\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i990.photobucket.com\/albums\/af27\/msaroff\/YCKj71.jpg\" style=\"cursor: pointer; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;\" width=\"290\" \/><\/a>In their 41-14 drubbing of the New England Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs safety Husain Abdullah intercepted Tom Brady and ran it back for a touchdown, and then gave thanks to God.<\/div>\n<p>Unfortunately, this was a Muslim prayers, so <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/10\/01\/sports\/football\/nfl-says-penalty-on-chiefs-husain-abdullah-for-praying-was-a-mistake.html\">he was given an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t ever recall that ever happening to Tim Tebow.<\/p>\n<p>Today, the NFL actually called out the Zebras, and apologized:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: blue;\">The N.F.L. said Tuesday that Kansas City Chiefs safety Husain Abdullah was mistakenly penalized by a game official when he knelt to pray after scoring a touchdown Monday night.<\/p>\n<p>In the fourth quarter of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/09\/30\/sports\/football\/jovan-belcher-chiefs-had-signs-of-cte-degenerative-brain-disease.html?ref=sports\">the Chiefs\u2019 41-14 victory over the New England Patriots<\/a>, Abdullah, who is Muslim, intercepted a pass by Tom Brady and returned it 39 yards for a touchdown. After he entered the end zone, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nfl.com\/videos\/nfl-game-highlights\/0ap3000000403207\/Tom-Brady-throws-pick-six\">he slid on his knees and bowed forward<\/a> in prayer, with his head touching the turf.<\/p>\n<p>He was given a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.<\/p>\n<p>An N.F.L. spokesman said Tuesday that Abdullah should not have been penalized. \u201cOfficiating mechanic is not to flag player who goes to ground for religious reasons,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NFLfootballinfo\/status\/516942894318383104\">Michael Signora, the spokesman, said on Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Players routinely gesticulate and thank God after scoring touchdowns. Most prominently, Tim Tebow, the former Denver Broncos quarterback, knelt on one knee after scoring. Tebowing became an Internet meme.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If Abdullah had Tebowed, he would not have gotten a penalty.<\/p>\n<p>You know it, I know it, and even the generally clueless National Football League knows this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In their 41-14 drubbing of the New England Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs safety Husain Abdullah intercepted Tom Brady and ran it back for a touchdown, and then gave thanks to God. Unfortunately, this was a Muslim prayers, so he was given an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. I don&#8217;t ever recall that ever happening to Tim Tebow. &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[967,1021,1057],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-185610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bigotry","category-religion","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185610"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185610\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}