The battle of football prayers

By Tom Quiner

Liberals consistently sneer at Christian acts of piety while drooling over Muslim ones.

Want proof?

The Catholic League’s Bill Donahue contrasted the media’s reaction to 2 distinctive acts of public reverence on the football field. Everyone remembers how Tim Tebow dropped to a knee to praise God in thanksgiving. Another football player, Husain Abdullah, who is Muslim, goes even further and drops his head all the way to the ground.

He recently scored a touchdown. Three things happened: 1. He did a celebratory slide in the end zone, which is cause for a penalty. 2. He bowed low to the ground in prayer. 3. He was penalized for #1 mentioned above.

Mr. Abdullah acknowledged that the slide was the reason for the penalty, NOT the prayer. Nonetheless, liberals had their fangs out.

Mr. Donahue contrasts the differing media reactions.

Regarding Tebow:

“We don’t know when, or if, he [Tebow] will start multiplying his loaves and fishes.” — Bill Dwyre, Los Angeles Times, Nov. 27, 2011.

Regarding Abdullah:

“This kid [Abdullah] playing against New England gave a brief and private, dignified prayer and he was penalized for it. Tim Tebow became an icon of prayer in the end zone. Two sets of rules.” — Jesse Jackson, politics.blog.ajc.com, Oct. 2, 2014.

Regarding Tebow:

“There are a lot of LGBT people in New York City who are also football fans,” and that “the new, possibly, starting quarterback for the New York Jets wants them to move backwards 30 or 40 years.” — Dave Zirin, quoted by the Media Research Center, March 12, 2012.

Regarding Abdullah:

“Abdullah” is “a godsend.” “We should be cheering and applauding special men like Abdullah who are a phenomenal credit to their faith and inspire Americans to give gratitude to God.” — New York Observer, Sept. 30, 2014.

Regarding Tebow:

“Most of us have learned to live with boundaries—to avoid thrusting our religion into arenas where it is unexpected or unwelcome.” “Should Tebow be so flamboyant about his faith?”— Joel Mathis, Scripps Howard News Service, Dec. 10, 2011.

Regarding Abdullah:

“The penalty is another example of America’s religious bias.” “Freedom of expression and religion are important tenets of American life. But in an age when corporations have the right to impose what they call Christian values on their secular work force, we should wonder if a Muslim boss would be granted the same permission. Considering the move of some states to ‘ban’ shariah law, we can probably guess the answer to that.” — Erika Stutzman, Daily Camera, Oct. 1, 2014.

Regarding Tebow:

“If Tebow wins the Super Bowl, against all odds, it will buoy his faithful, and emboldened faithful can do insane things, like burning mosques, bashing gays and indiscriminately banishing immigrants.” — Rabbi Joshua Hammerman, quoted by the Media Research Center, March 26, 2012.

Regarding Abdullah:

“It [the penalty Abdullah incurred] propels us to war. You have to rally the country in order to bomb a country that did nothing to you and you need to rally them and so that’s what I think that was.” — Rosie O’Donnell, “The View,” Sept. 30, 2014.

and …

“For anyone wondering why angry Muslims join ISIL, this whole saga could easily make the list.” — Ahmed Tharwat, Star Tribune, Oct. 1, 2014.

Critical thinking is not in the vocabulary of the PC crowd. They were long ago expunged by elites who view Christianity with such derision. They have the NFL in their crosshairs, as I have written about before. So what did the NFL do?

They quickly backed down.

They did not back the officials, who stand by the call. The NFL quickly apologized to the politically correct mob to head off another round of bad PR.

Thanks to Bill Donahue for shining a light on the media’s hypocrisy.