DAR AL HARB - U.S.A.: MOSLEM SPORTS STARS SHOULD BE USED TO INDOCTRINATE AMERICANS INTO BELIEVING THAT ISLAM IS THE RELIGION OF PEACE

U.S. Muslims look to athletes as faith ambassadors
By Omar Sacirbey
Religion News ServicePublished January 31, 2007

Farrukh Saleem acknowledges he has a problem.``I'm beyond a sports fanatic. I need help,'' said Saleem, who will hunker down in his Potomac, Md., home this Super Bowl Sunday with his six-year-old son and root for his beloved Chicago Bears.

Saleem, 36, attributes at least some of his sports fever to a youth spent watching Muslim superstars like Muhammad Ali and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who became heroes to countless Muslim-American children.

"It can be a struggle growing up Muslim in America,'' said Saleem, whose family emigrated from Pakistan shortly before he was born. "So when you see other Muslims doing and succeeding at the sports you love, that can't help but give you a lift.''

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Today, there are more Muslims in U.S. sports than ever. But despite calls for better understanding between the Islamic and Western worlds, few Muslim athletes have emerged as ambassadors of the faith like Ali and Abdul-Jabbar. That leaves Saleem wondering about his children: ``Who are going to be the role models for them?''

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"We don't have the superstars now,'' said Saleem, explaining that the likes of an Ali or Abdul-Jabbar come around once in a lifetime.

But a few Muslim-American athletes today are willing to act as bridge-builders between Muslims and non-Muslims.

"I feel I have to portray my religion as well as I can because a lot of times I am the first contact that people have with a Muslim,'' said Hamza Abdullah, who plays in the National Football League for the Denver Broncos.

When the team travels to games, Abdullah dons a dress suit and a kufi, or Muslim prayer cap, hoping the image of a poised NFL pro will counter television shows like "24,'' in which Muslims are depicted as terrorists.

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Still, other Muslim-American athletes shy from public discussions about faith. For example, the NBA's Nazr Muhammad and the NFL's Gibran Hamdan declined to be interviewed for this story.

"As with other people of faith, Muslim athletes don't have to wear their religion on their sleeve,'' said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, D.C.

"These athletes will tell you their first objective is to win games, not hearts and minds.''

But other Muslim Americans want to see more Muslim athletes playing public roles.

"If we can use sports as a vehicle to be an example, then that's what we should do,'' said Muzammil Mohamed Stevens, president of Muslim Athletes United International Inc., a small organization in Maplewood, N.J., that supports and recognizes Muslim athletes.

"We should try and be an example to our youth at all times. When you think about the society we live in nowadays, youth are very impressionable,'' Stevens said.


Pertinent Links:

1) U.S. Muslims look to athletes as faith ambassadors