"...and other constructive activities." From the Daily Times, with thanks to MB:
LAHORE: Ulema in Saudia Arabia have issued a fatwa (religious decree) declaring football an un-Islamic sport, and have urged the youth to quit it immediately, BBC radio reported on Saturday.According to the report, the clerics urged the youth to indulge in jihad and other constructive activities that could help the Muslim ummah, the radio reported. The ulema argued that football wastes a lot of time and the participants wear shorts, which they said was an un-Islamic dress, the radio reported.
Young men are heeding the call:
Following the decree, some players of the famous Taif Football Club have quit the game, the report added.
Having a brain is un-Islamic. Maybe they should demand that everyone have their brain removed.
that football wastes a lot of time and the participants wear shorts, which they said was an un-Islamic dress
The horror .... the horror ...
f.g.
i wonder if these sad individuals will now issue a fatwa against the (great) pakistani sport of kabbadi, where the participants only wear shorts not even a shirt
This would be really hilarious if it weren't so darn sad! These people are making clowns out of themselves! And many people in the West continue to take the views of the clowns seriously! And that's darn sad, too!
Some already went to Iraq.
SAUDI ARABIA: FOOTBALLERS RECRUITED BY AL-ZARQAWI
Riyadh, 23 August (AKI) - The captain of the al-Rashid football team in the Saudi city of Taif near Mecca has revealed that three former footballers on the team were recruited to al-Qaeda terror group by its Iraqi number-one, the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Jafar Attas told the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan that he decided to intervene publically after the father of one of his former team-mates, Majid Sawat, recognised his son as one of the suspected al-Qaeda militants arrested in Iraq, whose interrogations were broadcast on Iraqi television.
Sawat's father confirmed that his son is currently in Mosul prison after being arrested while trying to carry out a suicide attack. However, his two companions, Tamer al-Thamali and Dayf Allah al-Harithi, managed to complete their suicide 'missions'.
Tamer was the first of the three to disappear, two years ago, shortly after the death of his brother in a road accident. The other players from the team believed all three had left Taif for work reasons, but their captain said he suspected from the start that they had left for Iraq.
"I remember that every Wednesday and Thursday they met up to carry out religious activities," he told the newspaper. However, their other team-mates said the three former footballers did not arouse suspicion because they had always lived quiet, normal lives.
Hundreds of young Saudi men are thought to have gone to Iraq to join the Jihad, or holy war, there. In May, two Arab newspapers ran interviews with young Saudis who went to Iraq but changed their mind. One said he and his friend returned to Saudi Arabia on learning that their only contribution would be as a suicide car-bomber. Another said he and his companions turned back before reaching the Syrian-Iraqi border, on receiving a text message with a fatwa from a Saudi mufti, banning Saudis from taking part in the Jihad. He also said 300 young men had left to fight in Iraq from his region alone.
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Sport&loid=8.0.199976887&par=0
Is this how the Taliban freed up the stadiums for executions?
Remember Tom Hanks, in "A League of Their Own", saying, "There's no crying in baseball!"?
Remember Khomeini, in real life, saying "There's no FUN in islam!"?
What a bunch of dour mammyjammers.
Football - invented by the English.
The Saudi's that live in London (lots & lots & lots & lots & lots of them), have probably & most correctly reported back to their spiritual advisors in Dar al Islam that the main religion to fear coming out of England is - FOOTBALL!
Look at the figures - how many true Englishmen go to a football match on a Saturday, week in week out as opposed to the same number of Englishmen that visit a Church on Sunday?
How much cash do the faithful pile into their respective clubs branding & merchandising so they can wear the exact garb of their sporting religious masters as opposed to those who pay money into their local C of E picture postcard Church?
Look at he global reach of say, Manchester United - no territory nor product untouched & unsold by the sort of multi faceted, omnipotent mega marketing machine all major religions can only dream of, & gasp in wonder at the global convertee rate.
Frightening, isn't it?
Oh yes, who could argue with a religious movement with the articulate wit & devastating linguistic reportoire of Saint David Beckham at its helm?
Look at the appeal - across all classes, all religions, all countries...yes, the Saudis have correctly identified the New Religion of the West & its future corrupting influence on the faithful.
Football, the English Religion, is quietly conquering the world whilst you all concentrate on Islam......
It still becomes more and more disturbing that the majority of Iraqi insurgents have been identified as being from Saudia Arabia just as where the greater majority of the original hijackers from 9-11.
If the Saudi Government is really serious about stopping terrorism; they need to shut down all these waahabist hate preachers. But of course we have been calling for that for years and have had almost no results.
Most evidence has been showing that the dominate Islamic Ideology in Saudia Arabia is Waahabism and that sect has pretty much hijacked Islams most holy city Mecca.
This is a culture that is beyond parody - you simply could not make this up. Perhaps they can persuade the Pakistanis to give up criket - that should make the Indians happy.
Oops - that should be cricket.
Considering the mountains of money spent by Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states since the seventies to set up football and other sports teams capable of competing at World Cup level (and their relative success, too), I really think these clerics ought to consult with their owners in the royal family before they open their unholy mouths. I imagine plenty of football-loving Saudi princes are currently pretty pissed off, and that these fatwas will not be widely observed.
Freddie:the (great) pakistani sport of kabbadi
Kabbadi is an Indian sport.
JohnB, life would b dull without India-Pakistan cricket matches especially if they arent held here in UK, they're second only to Ashes. BTW I'd Been at Trent Bridge on 2nd day of Ashes last Thursday, apart from seeing the rare sight of England givin Aussies a run fer their money, i actually saw a few Muslims in English colours!
The main concern should be, 'beware a muslim wearing shoulder pads'. Any muslim wearing shoulder pads is undoubtably up to no good. I searched for any Quranic references to 'shoulder pads, and could not find any. Ahadith was the same...no one said, 'I heard the Prophet say', anything about shoulder pads at all. Unless he was talking about armor. I dont think the fatwa included shoulder pads, so musims can continue to wear them if they choose. Even if they cant be big, burly, football players, they can still look like them. Any muslim who is not a football player, who wants look like one at the mosque and mall, is up to something. He should be detained by authority and made to explain those shoulder pads...
Woooooo doggies. Football today, horse and camel races tomorrow. What's next? All those newly installed camel and horse jockey robots will be out of "work".
If they think football is such a waste of time, how about curtailing usage of the internet, computers and cell phones? All those things are decadently inspired Western inventions. Need to outlaw currency while they're at it. Aha! SA defeats itself .. SA 0 - West 100,000,000.
Vikrant:
Good point - the Sahara Cup must be exciting. The cup matches were held here in Toronto for a few years (I guess that would be about ten years ago maybe) when relations were really bad between India and Pakistan. Maybe you can expalin something - a brawl erupted during one of the matches when a spectator called an opposing player a "potato". I don't remember if it was an Indian or Pakistani fan who hurled the insult but it certainly raised eyebrows here. I guess something got lost in the "translation".
Cheers.
this islamic banning of sports demonstrates that islam micro-manages peoples' lives. islam is overprotective of muslims.
the introduction of sports into islamic cultures is i think very wise. sports are how societies channel their agressiveness into benign and entertaining pursuits while striving for excellence.
conversely, islam is a religious competition to the death, which is pure barbarism. islam is a "my god is better than your god, or else" type of belief.
islam is: "believe in allah or die", which is rediculous and overbearing to the max.
so sports are a good way to introduce the muslim to healthy competition and the fact that there is certainly more to life than dying for allah in the subjugation and oppression of non-muslims.
Well, little green footballs won't be bouncing in Saudi Arabia.
-----------------------------
dolphin, CAGE co-founder.
http://www.acage.org
The actual reason for the ban was the increasing number of slip and fall injuries caused by players going into the shower room while wearing a blindfold.
Oh well,they still have Bushkashi.Bushkashi is kind of a cross between polo and road kill.Players on horse back fight over a dead goat and try to drop it in a circle on the ground.This sport screams islam.
JLP
john
Ahh.. i c that ur a Canadian. Only one player fits the description, that is Inzy Haq the Paki captain. I think they stopped the Toronto cup after 1999 when
India suspended all sporting relations with Pakistan. Last year i'd been at Lord's,London for Indo-Pak Champions Trophy match, boy the racist slurs and the profanity that were flung around could even put an Irishman to shame...
Will Saudi football players even be banned from participating in games outside the kingdom?
A similar issue occured in 2000 when Afghan boxers wanted to perform in the Olympics. Unfortunately, they could not do so because Taliban rule required all men to wear beards. In Olympic Boxing, men have to be clean-shaven.
I remember the good old days of chanting political slogans in the Zocalo, denouncing the imperialists' football clubs, raging righteously at the running soccer dogs of capitalism, thousands--no, millions of people chanting:
¡El Pueblo Unido
Jamas Sera Vencido!
But then I was watching the game one day in Britain, and when I heard it in English for the first time I realized the ultimate truth of the Greater Universe:
!Manchester United
Will never be defeated!
vikrant - twenty years ago i watched it in lahore a good few times - i thought it was great
anyway, vikrant, if saudi clerics decide to have a go at kabbadi as well, i would think it that it would impact much more on the game in pakistan than in india, dont you?
i think probably theyre having a go at footy mostly because its western
EXCELLENT!
Now we know a Jihadist when we see one.
1)refuses to wear western "summer" clothing,e.g.,shorts
2)won't play sports
Jeez and we thought our Puritans were bad!
The joke about all this is that Saudi Arabia played in the World Cup three years ago, and has had one of the better national sides in Asia (it plays under the auspices of the Asian Football Confederation). The Saudis also played in the Land of the Infidels -- i.e., the U.S. -- when the 1984 World Cup was here.
Oh GREAT! Now football's been decreed unislamic. The next thing they're gonna ban is my frickin' PORK RINDS....You CAN"T have football without porkrinds, people!
I am sure that saudi muslims won´t matter what clerics have said. In islamic lands football has a lot of followers, in addition, people so islamic like Zidane, is no anti-islamic for being a player football? Greetings
Why don't they ALL just declare ANYTHING that Mohammad never did as un-Islamic?
Then they can safely stay back in the 7th century, and won't be able to bother us much...
-since it is rather difficult to build car bombs from camel dung, black rocks and goat gristle. Or get onto jihadist websites using seashells, zam zam water and sparks from an iron sword hitting a piece of flint.
Let the Luddite games begin!
A football is as hollow as a Mohammedan skull.
But I don't give a hoot: Let them do camels and donkeys instead...