Posted on 09/15/2004 6:03:37 PM PDT by MikefromOhio
USF player said issue was a distraction
TAMPA, Fla. -- A University of South Florida women's basketball player who wanted to wear Islamic clothing on the court quit the team on Wednesday.
Last week, USF had asked the NCAA for an exemption to its uniform policy to allow Muslim convert Andrea Armstrong, 22, to wear long pants, a top with long sleeves and a scarf during games.
In a letter Wednesday to coach Jose Fernandez, Armstrong said she was leaving the team because she didn't want the uniform issue "to cause further distraction."
Armstrong first said last week that she had left the team and lost her athletic scholarship after Fernandez told her she could not wear religiously mandated clothing during practices or games.
In a meeting Friday with Armstrong, university officials and a representative of Council on American-Islamic Relations, officials agreed that the team would accommodate her Islamic attire and reinstate her scholarship. The university also agreed to work with the NCAA on the scarf issue.
But Fernandez said Armstrong requested a meeting with him Wednesday and left the team.
"I offered her an opportunity to think further on her decision, and she assured me the decision is final," Fernandez said.
Armstrong, a senior forward from Lakeside, Ore., played one season with the Bulls after transferring from Kansas State University.
Religion and sports have intersected elsewhere. At Towson University in Maryland, star player Tamir Goodman, an Orthodox Jew, wore a yarmulke on the court and did not play on the Jewish Sabbath. At the Olympics in Greece, several female athletes wore head scarves.
I think it was a mistake to name the team the USF Infidels.
If islam didn't insist on murder and world wide warfare, nobody would mind.
Would we have let players wear swastikas in play? Even now?
I guess she should have participated there instead. ;)
It's amazing how many people have forgotten that the world doesn't owe them anything, that life isn't "fair", and that they can't always have their way. This is freedom in action. You're free to play.........by the rules.
Pathetic, simply pathetic. I went to school at USF, and the other muslim that is "famous" from there is a terrorist group fund raiser.
"I am a viking and demand to wear a viking horn helmet!!"
-Soon to be heard from a nose guard in the NFL.
Don't let the door hit you on the @ss on your way out.
Good riddance.
Bye.
See ya.
Get out.
LVM
Islam controls everything in life, just like Big Brother.
Typical "convert" to the muslim religion. Always so over the top in their zealousness. Another Sultana Freeman looking for attention.
The meaning of the noun "uniform" is easily understood by MOST people.
So's the adjective.
In honor of Rosh Hashanah they ought to give the athletic scholarship to a non-whining Jewish athelete.
> I wondered how this would end up...
I was afraid she'd threaten to behead herself.
Imagine the chaos if nudism was a formal religion.
With secret pockets for the plastique?
(No doubt the b*tch will declare jihad on the ref, the players, and the fans if she fouls out of the game.)
I thought she was objecting to the team's new mascot....a Caterpillar bulldozer.
....And don't let the Door hit you in the A$$....
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