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The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
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Muslim
makes Israeli
football debut
Campus researches gun solutions
Demonstrations by
violent fans leading
up to appearance
JERUSALEM (AP) - Under
heavy security, a Muslim foot-
ball player whose signing with
a Jerusalem club sparked a
violent uprising by a hardcore
group of racist fans made his
much anticipated debut Sunday
to a rousing ovation.
Hundreds of police deployed
around Beitar Jerusalem's sta-
dium, two days after a suspi-
cious fire believed to be set by
angry fans destroyed the team's.
main offices.
Tensions remained high as
the team faced off against Bnei
Sakhnin, an Arab team whose
fans have clashed before with
Beitar's. But the thousands of
fans and foes who flooded to
Teddy Stadium presented a
show of strength against a ris-
ing tide of racism among Israeli
soccer fans.
"I came today to show that
not all Beitar fans are punks
and racists," said Yair Sina, a
49-year-old lifelong Beitar fan.
"I won't let them take away my
love for the team,"
The fire, which destroyed
historic trophies and memen-
tos, marked the height of a
violent campaign by fans upset
with the team for signing two
Muslim players from Chechnya.
But in contrast to the previ-
ous taunts and jeers directed at
the players, the crowd of thou-
sands erupted into a rousing
standing ovation when Gabriel
Kadiev, a 19-year-old defender
recently brought over from FC
Terek Grozny, entered the game
in the 80th minute. Every time
he touched the ball the crowd
cheered wildly, mostly.drown-
ing out a smattering of boos.
The trend continued when a
few minutes later Beiter scored
a late goal to secure a 2-2 tie.
Kadiev's Chechen teammate,
23-year-old Zaur Sadayev, was
injured and not included in the
team lineup.
The goodwill was felt
throughout the stadium with
banners reading "Violence and
racism? Not on our field" and
fliers explaining the sensitivity
of the game and beseeching the
fans to behave.
Police spokesman Micky
Rosenfeld said more than 500
policemen were deployed inside
and outside the stadium to
prevent disturbances. Officers
were on horseback and others
escorted the Sakhnin players
into the field to make sure they
were safe.
"It is now clear to any rea-
sonable person in the country
where racism can lead. I came
here to strengthen Beitar in
their battle against racism,"
said Jerusalem Mayor Nir Bar-
kat, one of several dignitaries
at the game. "This is a historic
process and it is clear that what
was once cannot be again."
Beitar has long tried to con-
tain a tightly knit fan group
called "La Familia" whose
behavior has had the team
docked points and forced it to
play before empty stadiums.
The group is routinely abusive
toward opposing players, taunt-
ing them with racist and anti-
Arab chants.
Mass. college
inspires renewed
focus on firearms
BOSTON (AP) - On a Friday
afternoon in December, Lee Pel-
ton was driving home with his
13-year-old daughter in the pas-
senger seat when radio reports
of the Newtown school massa-
cre forced him over to side of the
road.
"I held her hand as we listened
...and we both cried,"said Pelton,
the president of Boston's Emer-
son College. "We're both strug-
gling with how could this have
happened, why it happened?
Those are the things we talked
about. We didn't have answers.
But I knew at that moment I was
going to do something."
Overnight, the answer of just
what to do began to crystallize.
The next day, Pelton sent a long
email to all of the college's 4,500
students and 1,500 faculty and
staff. Together they would "seek
to make sense of the senseless,"
he wrote, by launching a prob-
ing discussion of gun violence
in which all sides would listen
to one another and search for
solutions. The unresolved ques-
tion: Given the fierce divide and
raw emotions that surround the
debate over guns, is that kind of
conversation even possible?
Pelton decided it wasn't
enough to search for the answer
at his college alone. He wrote an
open letter to President Barack
Obama and more than 280 other
university and college presidents
signed on, pledging to launch
debate about the issues sur-
rounding guns ontheir own cam-
puses.
That discussion in higher edu-
cation had already begun, and
has only grown. Pelton's letter
went out about the same time as
another, penned by the president
of Atlanta's Oglethorpe University
and signed by leaders of morethan
370 colleges. That letter urges
lawmakers to oppose legislation
allowing guns on campuses, close
a loophole allowing some gun
sales withouta background check,
reinstate a ban on military-style
weapons and require safety stan-
dards for guns.
Institutions including Bethany
College in West Virginia, whose
president signed both letters, and
BrownUniversityin Rhode Island,
whichis actingonitsown, saythey
are planning forums on gun vio-
lence later this semester. Ogletho-
rpe President Lawrence Schall
said he plans to deliver a speech
on his campus this month about
the need for college presidents
to speak out on important issues,
highlighted by the focus on com-
batting gun violence.
Pelton, who acknowledges his
own strong views on gun control,
says he expectedaskepticism.
Many American colleges and
universities are regarded; par-
ticularly by conservative critics,
as centers of left-leaning views.
And students and professors at
Emerson, facing Boston Com-
mon and just down the hill from
the gold dome of Massachusetts'
capitol, routinely describe it as a
decidedly liberal institution. It
sits in a strongly left-leaning city,
in the state that gave the nation
the Kennedys, was the only one
of 50 whose voters backed George
McGovern's quixotic 1972 run for
president, and already is home to
some of the nation's strictest
gun laws.
I
I
S
0
Hosptial releases
victims of Mardi
Gras shooting
6
I
Reveling continues
after bullets
wounded four
Friday
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -
Gunshots erupted in a crowd of
bead-wearing, drink-carrying
late-night revelers on Bourbon
Street during the countdown
to Mardi Gras, wounding four
people and sending bystanders
running and screaming. Hours
later on Sunday, though, the
same stretch was packed with
partiers who said they weren't
letting the violence dampen
their fun.
In a video taken by a witness
Saturday night and released
the next day, the shootings are
preceded by footage of people
standing shoulder to shoulder
in New Orleans' famed tour-
ist district, with some holding
green plastic cups and wear-
ing gaudy hats or masks. A sec-
tion of the frame highlighted
by police shows people jos-
tling and speaking with angry
expressions.
Police said in an email that
the video depicts an argument
involving one of the shoot-
ing victims and the suspects.
Two men are seen leaving the
argument and returning with
a third, then approaching the
victim as at least one of the sus-
pects begins shooting, accord-
ing to police. Four shots are
heard in rapid succession, fol-
lowedby screams as some in the
crowd stagger into one another
and a nearby wall. A man whom
police identified as one of the
suspects is shown walking
through the crowd with his arm
extended as the gunshots are
heard, though it's difficult to
make outa weapon.
Police said Sunday that they
were seeking the three men
and that they've identified one
suspect, but won't release the
name.
The shootings wounded
two men and two women,
three of whom were treated
and released Sunday. One man
hit in the abdomen, thigh and
pelvis was in stable condition
Sunday after surgery the previ-
ous night, New Orleans Police
spokesman Hilal Williams said.
Another man was shot in the
buttocks, one woman was shot
on the chin and right foot, and
the second woman was shot on
the toe, police said. No ages or
names were released.
The shooting came on the-
last weekend of partying before
Mardi Gras, the Fat Tuesday
celebration that is the signature
tourist event of the year in New
Orleans. And for thousands, the
partying continued despite the
shooting. Parades rolled under
cloudy skies Sunday before
crowds of onlookers, though the
shootings were on the minds of
some revelers.
"It was very disappoint-
ing," said New Orleans resi-
dent Carol Redmann-Bailey as
she watched Thoth roll by. "I
was disappointed and sad, but
it seems like Bourbon Street
stayed open. ... Let the good
times roll."
New Orleans has been
plagued for years by violent
crime, including gun violence
that has soared since Hurricane
Katrina devastated the city in
2005.
In 2011, sixteen people were
shot and at least two killed in
Halloween shootings in New
Orleans. One of the victims
was slain near the Chris Owens
nightclub, about a block away
from Saturday's incident.
Patrick Clay, a 21-year-old
Louisiana State University stu-
dent, told The Times-Picayune
that he was standing on the cor-
ner of Bourbon Street on Satur-
day night when suddenly he saw
a crowd running and people
screaming that there had been
a shooting.
close to north campus. on bus line. free heat. free parking for you and guests. 3 athletic courts. free tanning.