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Tuesday Trip

Where are the moderates now?

Here's a story about a youth football league that was caught offguard this year by some of the football team names in the Annual Holiday Tournament. This one is via Fox News:

Furor Over Muslim Football Tournament
IRVINE, Calif. — The idea was innocent enough: A group of young men organize a holiday football tournament and give their teams such innocuous names as "4th and Goal" and "Playmakerz."

It was some of the other team names that raised eyebrows: Intifada, Soldiers of Allah and Mujahideen.

Now, some of you may believe that, because of the 1st Amendment, these young men can name their team whatever the hell they want. The first thing that I thought was "Why the hell are their parents allowing this to happen?" It all starts in the home. It seems that some of the Muslim community agrees.

...Muslim leaders have asked the teams to reconsider the names.

"Sensitizing our youths is our role as adults," said Hussam Ayloush, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Southern California.

But he also said he believed the players were not being malicious when they decided the names.

"In this case, the choices were totally innocent and meant for a small intra-Muslim tournament whose members all knew what the terms stand for," Ayloush said. "Unfortunately, we are aware that a few of those terms are being tainted by the abominable actions of a few Muslims."

I find it hard to believe that terms that the Palestinians have used to label their cowardly war on innocent women and children could be, in the biggest stretch of the imagination, used legimately for a sports team name. The only choices that were totally innocent were the ones made by the victims of Intifada - choices like going to work, throwing your daughter a Bat Mitzvah, or having a cup of tea.

...The league also posted an open letter on the Internet, apologizing "if anyone took offense to what was intended to simply be a positive outlet for Muslim youth."

The letter also defended the use of the word Intifada, citing the Palestinian movement.

WTF? The letter also defended the use of the word Intifada?

Okay, maybe this is just blown way out of proportion because of a few stupid kids. But where is the outrage from the Muslim community - wait, check that - the American Muslim community. A little apologizing and backtracking is all we got here, folks. If I name my football team the Columbine Massacre or the McVeighs or the Lynchers, what do you think would happen? Both liberals and conservatives would be all over me like white on rice. The outcry would be immense and intense.

So where are those people in the Muslim community? Everyone can't possibly be an extremist, right? Is everyone who is not an extremist afraid of the ire of the extremists? Even in Irvine, California? Irvine. California.

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