This Isn't About Islamophobia: It's About Solidarity

When a referee ordered 11-year-old Asmahan Mansour off the soccer field because she was wearing a hijab, her teammates protested by forfeiting the game. The referee was Muslim, by the way. Asmahan's mother, an Italian immigrant who'd married a Lebanese Muslim, says Asmahan started wearing the hijab of her own volition a couple years back.

In Australia a couple of years ago, a soccer player named Afifa Saad was also ordered to remove her hijab. She refused to remove it and her teammates - as well as the teammates of the opposing team - supported her.

Around the same time, in British Columbia, 17-year-old Gurinder Dah was ordered off the field and told he had to remove his "patka," one of those mini-turbans Sikh boys wear, and the entire team from Calgary’s Northwest United stood by him and walked out of the game.

It's about solidarity. So is this. The kids are winning. The rest is noise.