Small Minds

"Before Games, Religious Questions" demonstrates, with shocking clarity, the level of distrust and contempt that is the worst part of what religion has to offer. Not only was the forced accommodation of the team from Beren Academy a stark reminder of the prejudice that permeates, but the revelation concerning the exclusion of the Iman Academy from the league, was a look deep into the minds of those who would teach to our worst instincts.

The questions posed on the application for admission, as set forth in your article, are appalling. What could this association have been thinking when they make inquiries sound like accusations and when they would suggest, almost explicitly, that these young men and women asking to join in and be part of a community of athletes were secretly plotting its overthrow and the death and destruction of all who they would meet in competition?

In addition, the survey to the member schools of their reaction to the possible acceptance of the Islamic school, created a reprehensible suggestion that it might be an appropriate response to threaten to leave any association that would include this school. Those who refused to answer the survey, by their silence, spoke to the sheer lunacy of it all.

It is a sad day in sport, and for our country, when prejudice and bigotry rear their ugly head on the playing field. It is particularly discouraging when these are the lessons we are imparting to our children.


PS ON MARCH 12, THE NEW YORK TIMES PUBLISHED AN EDITORIAL ENTITLED "BIGOTRY ON THE PLAYING FIELD." I INVITE YOU TO READ IT AND COMPARE IT TO THIS POST