DEARBORN, Mich. (ABP) — A legendary high school wrestling coach in Michigan has filed a federal lawsuit claiming he was fired by a Muslim principal for his Christian beliefs.
Gerald Marszalek, 64, accuses Dearborn schools and Principal Imad Fadlallah of violating his constitutional rights of free speech and free exercise of religion under the First Amendment and due process and equal protection under the 14th Amendment. He also claims religious discrimination and violation of civil rights under Michigan law.
Marszalek, a 35-year wrestling coach at Dearborn's Fordson High School and member of the Michigan High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame, says he was informed in 2008 that his coaching contract would not be renewed for another year. He claims that is because Fadlallah, a Muslim, was upset with his Christian beliefs and his close ties to an Assembly of God missionary controversial in Dearborn's large Muslim community.
Trey Hancock, pastor of Dearborn Assembly of God, was a volunteer assistant coach for the wrestling team until 2005, when Fadlallah ordered him fired after he baptized a Muslim student introduced to Christ at a non-school sanctioned and independent summer wrestling camp.
Hancock later complained in an e-mail that Fadallah had slapped a student during an ensuing controversy, but the Dearborn Public Schools Board of Education found him innocent. More than 200 concerned students and citizens showed up at the meeting to show their support for Fadlallah, the first Muslim principal at the school where more than 80 percent of students are of Arab descent.
The lawsuit says Fadlallah ordered Marszalek to keep Hancock away from the wrestling program. Marszalek says that was impossible, because Hancock's son was a member of the team who won a state championship this spring.
Fadlallah accused Hancock of using his access to the wrestling team to proselytize, a charge that both Marszalek and Hancock deny.
Hancock says in five years as an assistant coach, he never mixed religion and sports. He says the youth he baptized is a friend of his son and had been attending Dearborn Assembly two years before he joined the wrestling team.
Hancock, who is listed as a home missionary for "intercultural ministries" by the Assemblies of God Michigan District, is viewed with suspicion by critics in Dearborn's Muslim community who accuse him of using manipulative and overzealous evangelistic methods targeting youth. Hancock's supporters say there is nothing sneaky about his practices, and everyone knew he was a minister before he volunteered to be a coach.
Christian Freedom International, a Michigan-based organization, said the controversy "reflects a growing hostility towards Christianity throughout the country, and not just among members of the growing Muslim population."
The Thomas Moore Law Center, which is handling Marszalek's lawsuit, said failure to renew the coach's contract had nothing to do with wrestling and everything to do with religion.
"We are getting a glimpse of what happens when Muslims who refuse to accept American values and principles gain political power in an American community," said Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the private firm that specializes in religious freedom for Christians and other issues related to "America's Christian heritage and moral values."
This isn't Hancock's first brush with local celebrity. In 2007 a Muslim father filed a lawsuit claiming that the state's Department of Human Services and Hancock's church were conspiring to prohibit his daughter from practicing Islam.
Hancock said it was part of a larger custody battle in a divorce case in which the girl's mother complained of abuse by her husband. He said it had nothing to do with coaching or the school.
According to the Arab-American News, supporters of Principal Fadlallah blame the controversy on a few staff members who want to drive him out of the school and "an outside group of Christian evangelizers who proudly boast about converting Muslim students."
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.