This blog sets out to bring together issues and concerns within the discourse of multiculturalism and social texts which i define as texts that generate public interest including news, editorial, popular literature and other popular texts in the media such as songs, advertisements, videos and movies. The coming weeks and month will present opportunities for me to draw on the discussion of multiculturalism from various parameters including ethnic studies, gender studies and cultural studies to facilitate how multiculturalism can be a useful tool to study social texts, and what these texts inform us of the state of our diverse world.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Husain Abdullah and the Muslim Minority in Ramadan

Finally, a story about acceptance and accommodation for the Muslim minority in America, albeit an individual's story.

This Wednesday, the 11th of August marks the first day of the holy month of Ramadan where all Muslims around the world will be fasting from dawn to dusk. The notion of fast entails abstaining from food, drinks and sexual acts, and using the time in greater religious acts including the reading of the holy Quran, and performing acts of charity by feeding the orphans and less fortunate. In some places in the world life takes a new routine as the people stay up longer at night to perform acts of worship at home and in mosques. For many of us Ramadan is a month in which we continue to strive to improve our religious practises and observance while carrying out our daily responsibilities.

However, when certain public figures steps up and declares his sense of faith and how Ramadan affects his daily life, it becomes a public discourse. Such is the story of Husain Abdullah, the 25 year Muslim American of African American descent. (The string of hyphenated identity is not the issue of this post, not for now.)

Hussain is a practising Muslim is a society that is predominantly Christian and in a time of the year when his professional career requires him to stay hydrated and strong. Husain plays for the Minnesota Vikings, an NFL team. I do not follow the NFL nor do I know Husain Abdullah. But when I read the news titled “Husain Abdullah to fast for Ramadan” about a Muslim fasting in the month of Ramadan, I had to stop and ask, why the obvious? As a Muslim living in a predominantly Muslim society, fasting in the month of Ramadan is not a major headline as the Prime Minister and most of his cabinet, the King and Queen and all Muslims public figures including artists, singers, actors will be observing this month of Ramadan.

However, as a member of a minority community in America and as a public figure in American sporting world, Husain’s story is a significant part of the multi-ethnic discourse in America. Minorities in America are not given any special incentive vis-a-vis their religious obligations. As Muslims, they are not given extended lunch breaks on Fridays in order to observe their weekly Friday prayers which is compulsory for all Muslim men (as is the case in Malaysia), neither are they given a public holiday for their religious festivals of Eid ul Fitr and Eid ul Adha. So to practise one’s faith in an environment that neither celebrates one’s distinction nor encourages it can be challenging.

This is why Husain Abdullah’s story today is significant. As a member of a Muslim minority this is what he has to day about his Ramadan this year:
"I'm putting nothing before God, nothing before my religion," […] "This is something I choose to do, not something I have to do. So I'm always going to fast."

To aid Husain’s intentions to continue to fast despite the vigorous training that he will have to endure during the day, the team’s nutritionist has created a diet plan for Husain to “make sure he gets enough calories to maintain his energy, stamina and health in the coming weeks. He'll eat a big breakfast and a big dinner, when it's dark of course, and get up in the middle of the night to take a protein shake.”

(I wouldn’t mind the plan myself to be honest)

This one act by the team lead by coach Brad Childress speaks volume for the issue of acceptance, recognition and respect that Husain receives as a member of a Muslim minority. And Childress’ comments about this issue also signals his awareness of the team’s need to be supportive of this one Muslim’s need to be a practicing Muslim while being a team player. Instead of seeing this issue as someone else’s problem, Childress  says (emphasis added):

“I think we have our arms around it now and know when he is going to wake up and when he is going to eat and what we can pack on him before the sun comes up," Childress said. "Last year he was shouldering it all by himself. He is playing well. He is a good special teams player. He's interchangeable and can be in the emergency nickel situation because he is a smart guy. He's got great football instincts. He is a guy you pull for."

Juxtapose this news with the recent ruling by the German soccer authorities who require their players to break their fast and play during the month of Ramadan. This has been supported by Germany's Central Council of Muslims (emphasis added)

“A Muslim group and German soccer authorities said Wednesday they have determined that professional Muslim players may break their fast during the holy month of Ramadan. The announcement followed a dispute involving second-division club FSV Frankfurt, which last year gave a formal warning to three of its players for fasting.”

Following this development the The European Council for Fatwa and Research have decided that the players have a professional obligation to the contract they signed and are thus to abide by them. According to a statement by Aiman Mazyek, the general secretary of the Central Council of Muslims,

"The Muslim professional can make good the fasting days in times when there are no matches, and so continue to pay God and the holy month of Ramadan honor and respect," He noted that "keeping the body healthy plays a leading role in Islam." "We very much welcome it that an arrangement has now been found that allows players to carry out professionally their work in high-performance sport and in doing so live their faith to the full," FSV Frankfurt manager Bernd Riesig said.”

I will not comment about the sad state of affairs that these Muslims have to endure between meeting the “professional” obligations and the religious ones. Suffice to say, such is the state of the minorities in a multi-religious, multi-ethnic societies.

What the two news have in common is the illustration of minority spaces in majority lead non-Muslim societies. Unlike the former in which the minority is given the space to practice his faith while being a functioning member of the football team, the latter I feel ignores the fundamental need of the minority Muslim players to continue abiding by their religious fundamentals in order to do what they are paid for. The latter demands for assimilation into the culture of the majority vis-à-vis public domains such as a national football team and only allows for certain spaces within the private domain “when there are no matches”

The former is an illustration of how far we can go to accommodate and tolerate each other’s religious differences, while the latter is an indication of how far the minorities still need to go before their faith is given the same public recognition.

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