Does faith get a yellow card at the FIFA World Cup?

July 6, 2018 CNA Daily News News Briefs 0 Print

Washington D.C., Jul 6, 2018 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- As a passionate soccer fan, Jennifer Bryson has been faithfully watching every game she can during the 2018 FIFA World Cup. But as a religious freedom expert, she’s found herself wondering how, and why, soccer authorities regulate the many religious expressions on display in the international soccer tournament.

“Sport is so relevant to religious freedom because it offers a shared civic space where people from diverse traditions come together and compete towards a common goal,” said Bryson, who is the director of the Religious Freedom Institute’s Islam and Religious Freedom Action Team.

Bryson watches for the moments when an athlete visibly prays in gratitude after a goal or makes the sign of the cross while coming onto the field, noting how the referees react to these religious expressions.

Between social media and worldwide television broadcasts, faith has been widely on display in this year’s World Cup in Russia. The Tunisian soccer team recited the Quran together in the team room, and Mexico’s soccer team celebrated Mass before their unexpected victory against Germany. A Nigerian athlete celebrated a win by waving his rosary. Egypt’s Mohamed Salah prostrated himself in prayer after scoring against Russia.  A Catholic and an evangelical from opposing teams knelt down next to each other to pray after the Belgium-Panama match. Even the 2018 World Cup logo was inspired by the Russian tradition of icon painting, according to the FIFA website.

But in soccer’s recent history there have been several controversies over  “demonstrative prayers” on the field.

Israeli soccer player Itay Shechter received a yellow card after he knelt on the field and prayed with a Jewish kippah after scoring a goal at UEFA Champions League game in Austria in 2010.

“For a Jewish player to get penalized for visible prayer in Austria was extra-controversial,” explained Bryson.

To defend Shechter’s right to pray, his coach, Eli Guttman said, “When a Christian player crosses himself after a goal, that’s also fine with me.”

In Scotland, lawmakers in 2003 proposed banning players from making the sign of the cross in a “provocative” way on a soccer field due to the religious divide of local teams among Protestant and Catholic soccer fans.

The Catholic Church opposed that proposal, saying legislation banning the sign of the cross would be as ridiculous as banning a Muslim from using a prayer mat, Bryson pointed out.

Bryson said that she has been encouraged by efforts to defend religious liberty in athletic contexts.

“Your own religious freedom is most protected when your neighbor of another faith also has religious freedom,” she said at “Exorcisms and Exercise, Crosses and Cross Passes,” a June 20 event sponsored by the  Religious Freedom Institute event.

In some instances, soccer players have been excluded from play on the basis of their religion.

The Iranian women’s soccer team withdrew from a 2011 Olympic qualifying match because the referee would not allow players wearing an Islamic hijab head covering to participate.

The NGO Coptic Solidarity submitted an official complaint to FIFA in June documenting the “widespread discrimination” against Coptic Christian soccer players that included 25 specific cases. There were no Copts included on Egypt’s 2018 World Cup team.

In June 2017, soccer star Jaelene Hinkle withdrew from the United States’ national squad because she was uncomfortable wearing a “pride” jersey during the team’s LGBT Pride Month rainbow jersey initiative. She was since booed and jeered during a game in Portland, Ore., by fans waving rainbow flags.

The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) required players to wear a special Pride Month jersey with rainbow numbers during international play in June 2018. The FAI tweeted, “Not just a number, this is a statement. Ireland, supporting LGBT rights.”

“Religious freedom also includes the freedom to say no,” Bryson remarked.

In June, FIFA announced that the 2026 World Cup will be hosted in North America, with games held in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Bryson says that she is hopeful that the 2026 games will be a truly global, welcoming games for both the fans and the teams are allowed to “come as they are.”

 

 

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UK government may push to legislate again on abortion in N Ireland

March 20, 2021 CNA Daily News 0

Belfast, Northern Ireland, Mar 20, 2021 / 01:01 pm (CNA).- The British government may push to legislate further on the provision of abortion in Northern Ireland, as it holds that the region’s devolved government has not fully implemented regulations imposed by Westminster.

“We remain disappointed that the Department of Health and Northern Ireland executive have failed to commission full abortion services, following the change to the law last March,” a British government spokesperson said, according to the Press Association.

“We are continuing to monitor the situation closely, including considering further legislative action at Westminster, given the nature of the legal duties on the secretary of state for Northern Ireland in this context.”

Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, but abortion law is considered a devolved issue to be under the control of the Northern Ireland Assembly. However, due to the suspension of the  regional government, the British parliament in October 2019 decriminalized abortion in Northern Ireland and obliged the UK government to create legal access to abortion in the region.

The regulations from Westminster, which came into force March 31, 2020, allow elective abortions up to 12 weeks of pregnancy; abortions up to 24 weeks in cases of risk to the mother’s physical or mental health; and abortion without time limit in cases of severe fetal impairment or fatal fetal abnormality.

Abortions may be performed at General Practitioners premises, and Health and Social Care clinics and hospitals. Medical abortions are permitted up to 10 weeks, and the first medication, mifepristone, must be taken at a clinic.

The Guardian reported a source in the British government as saying the Northern Ireland Executive “has not commissioned abortion services consistent with the regulations originally set out by the UK government nearly a year ago.”

Between March 31 and Oct. 14, 719 abortions were procured in Northern Ireland.

According to the Press Association, medical abortions have been arranged at individual health trusts, but the Department of Health has not commissioned abortion provision across the region.

Brandon Lewis, the UK Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, is “reportedly prompted by concerns many women are still travelling to Great Britain” to procure abortion, the Press Association wrote.

Northern Irish women have been able to procure free National Health Service abortions in England, Scotland, and Wales since November 2017.

The Guardian reported that “more than 100 women have still sought abortions in England from Northern Ireland.”

Throughout 2019, 1,014 Northern Ireland women are known to have traveled to England or Wales for an abortion, and fewer than 10 traveled to Scotland for an abortion, according to the U.K. Department of Social Care and Scotland’s Information Services.

The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission has filed a judicial review in the region’s High Court over what it maintains is a lack of commission and funding for abortion. The human rights group cites Lewis, the Northern Ireland Executive, and the Northern Ireland Department of Health in its complaint.

Lewis seeks to have the British parliament allow him to direct the Northern Ireland health department to commission more widespread abortion provision.

The health department holds that it needs the agreement of the regional government in order to act.

Northern Ireland’s First Minister Arlene Foster, who is also leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, and Jeffrey Donaldson, the party’s leader in Westminster, met with Lewis about his plans March 18.

Donaldson recalled that “abortion is a devolved matter,” adding that “any move by an NIO minister to legislate over the head of the Northern Ireland Executive would raise serious questions about when and in what areas the government can make interventions in a devolved administration. The DUP would warn the Northern Ireland Office against legislating on a matter which is wholly devolved and we will vigorously oppose such steps.”

The Northern Ireland Assembly is a power-sharing legislature dominated by the DUP and Sinn Féin.

The Irish nationalist party has said it will call on the health department to make full provision for abortion.

The Severe Fetal Impairment Abortion (Amendment) Bill, introduced by a DUP Member of the Legislative Assembly, passed its second reading in the Assembly March 15, by a vote of 48 to 12. The bill would remove severe fetal impairment as a ground for abortion.

Sinn Féin MLAs abstained from the vote, while MLAs from the Social Democrat and Labour Party, the Ulster Unionist Party, and the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland were allowed a conscience vote.

Disability rights campaigners — including the group Don’t Screen Us Out and Heidi Crowter, an Irish woman with Down syndrome — have welcomed the bill, calling the current law “downright discrimination” toward persons with disabilities.

Before March 31, 2020, abortion was legally permitted in Northern Ireland only if the mother’s life was at risk or if there was risk of long term or permanent, serious damage to her mental or physical health.

Northern Ireland rejected the Abortion Act 1967, which legalized abortion in England, Wales, and Scotland; and bills to legalize abortion in cases of fatal fetal abnormality, rape, or incest failed in the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2016.

In June 2020 the British Minister of State for Northern Ireland, Lewis’ deputy, said that while abortion regulation is a devolved issue, any local changes to Northern Ireland’s abortion law would have to comply with human rights conventions.

The Northern Ireland Assembly had shortly before passed a non-binding motion rejecting the imposition of the abortion regulations by the Westminster parliament.

The amendment to the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019 obliging the government to provide for legal abortion in Northern Ireland was introduced by Stella Creasy, a Labour MP who represents a London constituency.


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