The 2014 FIFA World Cup is the 20th FIFA World Cup, a tournament for the men's football world championship, that is currently taking place in Brazil has an abundance of Muslim players. Dotting the football landscape, Muslim players starring in their different teams from across the world are expected to draw much attention of spectators with special performance. Since, 6 of the 32 teams comes from countries where Islamic presence is substantial and more over 3 of them placed together in Group F, it is almost certain that Muslim players will be involved in the tournament’s latter stages.
In an article published in web-magazine Newageislam.com it has been pointed that if Muslims make their mark in different ways and as long as these make a positive contribution to society, we must celebrate it. And this should happen not because these players are Muslims, but for the reason that the religion to which they belong is mostly in 'news' for wrong reasons. The article titled 'The Melting Cup: Muslim Footballers Kick Stereotypes in Brazil' has been authored by Saif Shahin. He asks, "Can the success of these Muslim players and the cult status they are gaining kindle a warmer acceptance of Muslim immigrants—and of Islam as a religion—in the heart of Europe"? On current evidence, it seems rather unlikely. Just this year, Switzerland passed a referendum to impose strict limits on immigration. Contesting on anti-immigration and often blatantly Islamophobic platforms, several far right parties won substantial victories in the recently held European parliamentary elections.
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| Karim Benzema |
For obvious reasons, these Muslim players are typically reticent on such issues. But occasionally they do speak out. Ozil, after winning an award for ‘successful integration into German society’, said: “This is a great honour for me and I’m very happy. Integration creates something new and makes for a more colourful Germany.” And referring to France’s National Front, Zidane once warned, “Think - and I stress my words- about the consequences of voting for a party that does not at all correspond to the values of France.”
Another fact which needs to be mentioned here is that for the first time for 28 years that Ramadan has overlapped with a World Cup. Not only teams including France, Switzerland and Germany have players of Islamic faith, but also Bosnia-Herzegovina, Algeria, Cameroon, Iran, Ivory Coast and Nigeria all have large Muslim populations.
Read complete article along with interesting comments here: http://www.newageislam.com/interfaith-dialogue/saif-shahin,-new-age-islam/the-melting-cup--muslim-footballers-kick-stereotypes-in-brazil/d/97665
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