Why Muslims love basketball

Omar Abdelkader, a student at Northeastern University in Boston, is an observant Muslim but admits that, at least as a kid, he was occasionally seduced by the swish of a perfect jump-shot over the Islamic call to prayer.

“Sometimes we’d sneak out of prayers to play ball,” recalled Abdelkader, who grew-up attending the Worcester Islamic Center in central Massachusetts. Like a growing number of American mosques, the Worcester Islamic Center has a basketball court — and hence a built-in temptation for younger members.

“It’s not supposed to be like that, but kids love to play the game,” Abdelkader said while watching a recent Boston Celtics playoff game on a big-screen television at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center. He was joined by about 20 other Muslims, a scene that is being replicated in living rooms and Islamic community centers as the NBA playoffs head toward the finals in June.

At the moment, there are at least eight Muslim players in the NBA (four Turks, two African Americans, one Iranian, and one Tanzanian), and one of them — center Nazr Mohammed of the Oklahoma City Thunder — is currently in the middle of a tense series against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Continue reading at www.religionnews.com

DanMK

Small courts fit just about any where and rules are fairly simple When I was young we had no basketball courts but sort of a pit soccer. Surrounded by two walls, fences, hard street shoes and even sides ~ we went at it. UP Michigan.
msjallen

Who cares? The only thing I care about is that the muslims don't take over our country and if they do it is because too many people have turned their backs to God.
I Tim 2:1-2 First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.
GuyMacher

Watching basketball is not kosher for Muslims. All who do are apostate. Sneaking away from prayers? Devout Muslims do no such thing.
bighoss

Little-known fact–In the 1920s through the 1940s, many outstanding basketball players were Jews who learned and played the game in New York and other urban areas of the northeast. Check this out: http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics…
Vladimir

This article is just another Valentine to Islam. Look! Muslims are just like the rest of us. Therefore, Islam can't be bad or scary.