Posted on 11/03/2005 9:48:37 AM PST by nickcarraway
Players routinely do it at midfield, and fans say their prayers before field-goal tries, but five Muslim men were offsides when they gathered in prayer too close to a Giants Stadium airshaft, the feds say.
The men held a press conference Tuesday charging Meadowlands security and the FBI humiliated them for partaking in their regular evening prayers during a nationally televised game against the Saints last month.
The men arrived about an hour before the start of the Sept. 19 Monday night game — originally scheduled for New Orleans but played at Giants Stadium because Hurricane Katrina left the Saints homeless.
They picked an isolated spot near Gate D to conduct their evening prayer ritual: kneeling and touching their foreheads to the ground in sets of three.
Being devout followers of Islam, they are required to make five daily prayers in the direction of Mecca.
"As Muslims, we just have to pray when it's time to pray," said Sami Shaban, 27, a second-year law student who was born and raised in Mahwah, N.J. "We thought nothing of it. I pray in malls — I pray everywhere."
He and his friends went to their upper tier seats and watched the game until halftime, when they were approached by stadium security guards.
"We were sitting there, then they came, three behind us, three in front of us, and they said, 'Get up.' I said, 'Why?' " Shaban recounted.
The men said they were given no reason for being detained and were roughly escorted to an interrogation room in the stadium where FBI agents were waiting.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Exactly.
We would have had a suit from the aclu had Christians in the stadium prayed. I mean, wouldn't that have been offensive to these little freaks?
Who's to say they weren't saying their prayers before they went out and tried to Martyr themselves in an attack on the rest of the fans ?
The only thing more suspicious than a collection of Mooslimb men is a group of them praying.
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