From the District Chronicles
Farrukh Saleem acknowledges he has a problem. “I’m beyond a sports fanatic. I need help,” said Saleem, who hunkered down in his Potomac, Md., home last Super Bowl Sunday with his six-year-old son and rooted for his beloved Chicago Bears.
Saleem, 36, attributes 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 his birth. “So when you see other Muslims succeeding at the sports you love, that can’t help but give you a lift.”
In their primes, Ali and Abdul-Jabbar gave the small population of Muslim Americans, comprising mostly immigrants and their children, figures who validated their identities and proved Muslims could succeed in America.
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?”
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 Fox Television’s “24,” in which Muslims are depicted as terrorists.
While teammates have asked him about being Muslim, no schools, churches or other institutions have invited him to talk about Islam. “People feel like it’s a sensitive topic,” Abdullah said. “I think they think I’m going to get upset. But it’s the total opposite. I want people to ask me.”
I’m sure that Hamza Abdullah means well, but this is a star driven society. If he were a perennial All-Pro, he would be talked about more often and get more interviews and invitations to speak. As it is, hardly anyone has heard of him.
Filed under: Black American Muslims
No doubt.
Ali (AH-LEE, AH-LEE!!!) was the friggin’ man. A hero. Man lemme tell you. As the only Muslim African America in my hood in the seventies, Ali was like validation for me being raised different from most (if not all of my friends). It wasn’t that he was simply Muslim - oh no - he was the most dominant and entertaining fighter (athlete) ever…AND he was Muslim. Now imagine if Gerry Cooney took shahadah…yeah, thats what I thought. Yeah I know back then Ali was borderline between Elijah and real Islam and ‘aqeedah, shirk, yadda yadda - but back then it didn’t matter because he belonged to us. And Like Malik Shabazz he left that stuff and entered into tawheed (al-hamdulillah)
Same goes for the NBA’s ALL-TIME LEADING SCORER and SIX TIME WORLD CHAMP and FIVE TIME NBA MVP - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. It’s not that he was just Muslim (imagine if Mark Eaton became Muslim - yeah you get the point) it’s that he was dominant. Forced that ole’ 20,000 pairs of panties collector Wilt the Stilt to retire. So there are a lot of Muslim athletes…but they’re mediocre at best. And some of these guys have misleading Muslim names but have either rejected Islam or never was really Muslim in the first place.
Just so I don’t leave out the Houston TX brothers/sisters…
Big Props to Hakeem The Dream also.
Abdullah plays for Denver, so he’s not important. Now how about dem Cowboys!
Although I think it’s great that our Muslim children, get to see us in various roles and actually PARTICIPATING in the society we live in, uuhhh, shouldn’t Saleem and his wife be the role model for their children?! *scratching head*
As a tomboy, who’s still angry I can’t play for DC’s co-ed flag football team, I’d like to see our girls become more active. Being around them is very depressing - can’t find anyone to turn the double dutch rope for me LOL
Frankly, we must learn to stop getting excited when we hear “Muslim names,” especially in the black community. I changed my name long before I knew anything about Islam, but chose it because it was African (very common in northern Africa), which is the case with many “afrocentric” blacks. I even tried to name my nephew Nkosi but my sister in law wasn’t having it.
hakeem olajuwon helped to do a lot in houston, he was a very visible ambassador, in fact one big issue i remember is there was a big fuss raised about him refusing to allow a bronze statue of him to be built outside the new arena (same way ones were made of MJ etc)
Yeah. I really respect that Brother. He really was the last real public example of a practicing Muslim who happened to be a superstar. His own practice would force people to talk about Islam and this was because he was so damn good (as The Admiral David Robinson can attest). Whether it was his fast of Ramadan during the heat of a playoff run or having them make his Championship rings out of platinum instead of gold - he (without really saying much) with his practice brought Islam to the forefront.
Do you all remember Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, he used to play for the Denver Nuggets and has Tourettes. Whatever happened to him? I used to have the biggest crush on him. LOL
Speaking of Muhammad Ali, this is an interview I conducted with Mustafa Hassain, founder of the NOI in Pittsburgh. In this segment he speaks of how he introduced Muhammad Ali to Elijah Muhammad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umeyESwwOng
TSRP - would it be accurate to say that you were a fan of Muhammad? I could hear you all the way over here pumping up the crowd…you got me geeked and brought back memories of my childhood. Of course being from Chicago, Muhammad Ali held a special place in my heart. Heck it was even rumored that he was me and my brother’s father and one of his wives who had a black belt confronted my mother! I am my father’s child…look just like him but back in the day you had 3 sets of kids in the NOI that resembled each other (me and my brother, Muhammad Ali’s kids and some of Herbert/Jabber’s kids).
Float like a butter fly sting like a bee…well leave off the shirk part and he was the man!
lol, just got me thinkin’ ’bout the old days. I got caught up. Sorry.
Yeah Umm Adam, you were in the thick of things for sure. Now that you mentioned it…waayy down in TN, I used to tell varying uhh…”stories” when I was in the 1st grade that I was related to Ali in some way. When I got my driver’s license at 16 my father looked at the picture and said,”Hey, you kinda look like Ali…” For about a second he probably thought Ali had blew into Memphis in ‘72 on the DL. THEN when my son Khalid was born in 2000, I was looking at his round fat face and I said,”Hey, he kinda looks like Ali - Hmmmmmm”
“The Champ should be pretty…like me”
Maaan we fam, yall got fat round faces too! I thought it was a Chicago NOI thing.
Yeah we were in the thick of it. He was my car pool guy at Sister Clara Muhammad school. He would take my brother to his house, where he had turned his garage into a boxing ring and teach him to box… didn’t help he still a punk!
I and two of my daughters have been involved in martial arts for quite awhile. Rarely do we meet female competetors. One daughter stopped practice as her adult life has kept her very busy., so she now jogs and does pilates. My other daughter is still in competition even though she is in college. I practice /train weekly in tai chi. I mention the martial arts because certain aspects are good for sisters and will help improve their lives. Depending on your understanding you may not be interested in mastering weapons but learning to deal with stress and to defend ones self to allow you to get away if attacked is very important.