Muslims, Sports and the Olympics

Saudi Arabia’s Sarah Attar competing in the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The world has witnessed the participation of a record number of female Muslim

athletes since London 2012, and this number is set to increase at the Rio Olympics.

BALANCE: There is nothing wrong with expressions of religiosity in sports, but it's not right to have a blanket dress code.

Muslims and sports, contrary to popular misconception, have generally had a mutually beneficial coexistence 
over the years, without compromising principles.

Most Muslim sportswomen don't dress differently from non-Muslims.

THE 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro this week will not only be the first to be held in Latin America or the first to field a group of refugee athletes competing under the Olympic ban­ner, Olympic Refugee Team (ORT), but will also see an increasing num­ber of Muslim sportswomen partic­ipating in a motley of events.

While Muslim men and women have regularly participated in sports all over the world under the “usual” conditions, it is the emergence of female athletes from ultra-conservative Muslim nations in the Middle East that has steered attention to them, especially in what they wear and with whom they mix at sports events.

Muslim men, to whom the socio­cultural rules of modesty equally ap­ply, and which are often overlooked and ignored by the self-styled gate­keepers of such mores, have pro­gressed and proliferated in sports unencumbered by such distractions as dress code.

Muslims and sports, contrary to popular misconception, have gen­erally had a mutually beneficial co­existence over the years, without compromising principles. Take, for example, Muslim contribution to the development of rugby in South Africa despite the huge adversity of colonialism and racism over the centuries.

Historical evidence suggests that the Muslim Cape Malays, descen­dant from the Malayan archipelago, especially Batavia, took to rugby like fish to water. Rugby matches in those days were like social events.

The Cape Malay culture is vibrant and outgoing, and women have al­ways participated fully in commu­nity life, including rugby occasions such as the traditional Rag — the local derby between Young Stars from the Bokaap (Upper Cape) and Caledonian Roses from District Six — a history going back to 1936, and a rivalry at the time similar in local intensity to that between Liverpool and Everton or Arsenal and Spurs in the English Premier League.

In fact, it was the Cape Malays who founded the Western Province Coloured Rugby Union (WPCRU) way back in 1886, just three years after the Whites-only Western Province Rugby Union was estab­lished.

The clubs that founded the WPCRU included such names as Arabian College, Roslyns, Hamadiahs, Violets and Good Hopes, which in those days were largely formed from district enclaves or even streets in the mainly Malay District Six and Bokaap areas of inner Cape Town. Photographic evidence points to the fact that Arabian College was estab­lished in 1883 and Roslyns as early as 1881. The Arabian College team pho­to of 1883 conjured up the vision of the team in its rugby togs, but with each member wearing the Muslim fez, an essential accessory of the male Cape Malay.

The historical evidence also points to a similar deep-rooted in­volvement of Muslim Indians and Cape Malays in the development of cricket in South Africa with clubs such as the Ottomans showing the way.

There are such historical gems in­volving Muslim contribution to sport in several other countries. In­cidentally, according to Rugby Afrique, the international body re­sponsible for the promotion of rugby in Africa, rugby is the fastest grow­ing sport in non-traditional Africa among schoolgirls and women, with Tunisia and Morocco leading the way.

In more recent times, however, the relationship between religion and sports has also changed, evolv­ing perhaps with changes in society, politics, economic wealth and, cru­cially, governance, and affecting not only Islam, but also other faiths, in­cluding Christianity, Judaism, Hin­duism and Buddhism.

In the case of Muslim countries, the post-1973 oil wealth explosion, and the impact and seeming influ­ence of two ultra-conservative strands of Islam — Wahabism in Saudi Arabia and the so-called Is­lamic Revolution in Iran — and their reach through money politics in countries such as Afghanistan, Pak­istan, Bangladesh, Iraq and Lebanon, have introduced a new

stridency and confidence in push­ing what some have called a quasi- Salafist agenda in society, including sports.

Iran, for instance, banned women from attending men’s football matches. Saudi Arabia recently had the audacity (and some say the nerve) to suggest to the Internation­al Olympic Committee (IOC) that it would like to jointly bid to host the Olympics with neighbouring vassal, Bahrain, on condition that the men’s events would be held in the kingdom and the women’s events in Bahrain. In this way, it would institutionalise gender apartheid in the modern Olympic movement for the first time. IOC, to its credit, showed short thrift to such ideas.

Such a mindset is not the monopoly of Muslims. Some Scot­tish Presbyterians still scoff at the idea of holding sports events, such as football matches, rugby interna­tional and the Open Golf tourna­ment, on the Sabbath. Michael Jones, the New Zealand All Blacks rugby captain, refused to don the famous black jersey on a Sunday for the same objection. Many foot­ballers openly apply the Holy Trin­ity crucifix sign as they enter the field of play.

The trade mark of Mo (Mo­hammed) Farah, the double and de­fending Olympic champion for the 5,000m and 10,000m, after winning a race is to do the sujood, the ritual prostration of the prayers, on the ground. There is nothing wrong with such expressions of religiosity in sports. In fact, it can be performance and character enhancing. It does, however, become an issue when it is arbitrarily imposed based on selec­tive interpretations of creed, culture and tribal conservatism.

To its credit, the IOC and Fifa, the world governing body for football, have tried to negotiate sports issues relating to cultural sensitivities with a fairly open mind. In early 2014, for instance, Fifa approved the use of hijab in women’s football.

Female participation in public sports, let alone international events, from ultra-conservative Muslim nations have, until a few years ago, been virtually unheard of, This was primarily due to cultural objections relating to socio-gender dynamics, very often erroneously couched in the cloak of religious proscriptions.

Female Muslim athletes from countries such as Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Central Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and even Iran and Pakistan have, nevertheless, flourished over the years. Some of them have ex­celled and gone on to become world and Olympic champions.

Since the 2012 London Olympics, the world has witnessed the partic­ipation of a record number of female Muslim athletes, and there is every sign that this number is set to in­crease at Rio 2016, but with a dif­ference. While in London it was the odd Saudi or Emirati or Iranian ath­lete donning a hijab led by the likes of Saudi-American sprinter Sarah Attar and Omani colleague, Shi- noona Salah Al-Habsi, in Rio more Muslim women athletes are expect­ed to compete in outfits complete with hijab, not only from tradition­ally conservative nations from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and Iran, but also from others, such as the United States.

In Rio, for instance, Ibtihaj Muhammad will make history when she steps into Carioca Arena 3 for her first match in the women’s sabre fencing competition, becoming the first US athlete to compete in the Olympics wearing a hijab. Other ath­letes due to compete in Rio donning the hijab include Iranian-Balarus shot-putter Leila Rajabi and UAE weightlifter Aisha A1 Balushi.

The hijab issue is very sensitive in secular countries such as France, the Benelux countries and Austria. When French international foot­baller Jessica Houara-d’Hommeaux of Algerian descent posed for a pho­to in the French magazine, Surface, wearing a hoodie like a hijab head­scarf and soccer netting over her face similar to a niqab, which is banned in France, there was an out­cry, suggesting that she was making a political gesture.

Sports, however, can be a great equaliser albeit very often steeped in irony and contradictions. Enter the brave new world of the “sports hi­jab”. Countries in which the hijab is frowned upon and the niqab banned — at least some of their companies and fashion designers — are cap­italising on a new business oppor­tunity — the manufacturing of state- of-the-art garments for hijabis using the latest breathe-easy and temperature-control fabrics. These are emerging in a motley of sports — athletics, figure skating, triathlon, swimming and fencing.

Capsters in Holland, one of the most Islamophobic countries in Eu­rope, is one such company carving out a reputation in designing and manufacturing sports hijab gear, and making a neat little profit in the process.

Most Muslim sportswomen, how­ever, do not dress differently from their fellow non-Muslim competi­tors, ranging from Tunisian Olympic 3,000m steeplechase gold medalist Habiba Ghribi to Azeri Taekwondo champion Farida Azi­zova to hundreds of others from all over the world.

They do not have personal and cultural issues relating to a sports dress code. It is their personal choice as self-respecting adults. It would be a great injustice and self-defeating if ultra-conservative Muslim member countries tried to get IOC, Fifa and other world sporting bodies to im­pose a blanket dress code on Muslim sportswomen. That in itself would defeat the very http://mysportsgeneralknowledge.blogspot.my/2016/04/olympic-games.htmlOlympic ideal of achievement through hard work, and the spirit of tolerance and un­derstanding.

The writer is an independent London- based economist and writer
Adapted from NST/Comment/Monday - 8 August, 2016/pg16

Powerful Impact of International Sports

DESPITE all the problems in Brazil - political instability, finan­cial and economic woes and the Zika menace - the 2016 Rio Olympics has finally begun.

And tens of thousands of sports fans, athletes and officials are assembled at Rio for the greatest sports spectacle on planet earth.

Malaysians have a special rea­son to watch the Rio Games because we are anxiously waiting to see which of the probable sports - archery, badminton, cycling and diving (A,B,C or D) - will win the first Olympic gold for our country, “Hunt for the elusive gold” (The Star, Aug 5).

Of course, I pick B although the others have the potential to be podium winners too.

Let us be realistic; diving is a subjective sport. China is surely the undisputed and unchallenged powerhouse for this event, and the judges as usual consciously or unconsciously appear to have predetermined the results unless the divers mess up in their per­formances.

Archery is not only a sport of skill but it is also, and more importantly, dependent on mental strength. Can our archers match the competition in these two determining qualities?

No one should underestimate Azizulhasni Awang’s fighting spir­it and determination to get a podi­um finish in cycling because the keirin event is very unpredicta­ble; with a bit of luck in his strate­gy to outmanoeuvre his oppo­nents, even a gold is possible.

As for the rest of the Malaysian athletes, we expect them to go for the national records or at least improve their performance by clocking better times and posi­tions.

In short, all athletes should remember that the authorities and taxpayers have invested huge sums of money, immense time and effort on them so there is no option but to perform and give it their best shot.

Malaysian sports fans, like their counterparts across the globe, will be glued to their seats after wait­ing patiently for four years to watch stars like Usain Bolt (two- time Olympic record holder of the 100m and 200m events) and Michael Phelps (Olympic record winner of 18 gold medals in swimming) to smash more Olympic and world records.

Besides watching the games on television, computers, tablets and smartphones, the audience would also show an increased interest in sports and being active before, during and after the Games.

In my view, there is a positive correlation between extensive media coverage of major sports events such as the Olympic Games, English Premier League and other tournaments and com­petitions with people showing an interest in being more active and taking up sports. See also Hoang Xuan Vinh 

Views/ Thomas Kok, Ipoh
Adapted from The Star/Views/Monday, 8 August 2016