Jumu’ah mubarak! Happy Friday!
Alhamdulillah, it’s finally launch day. This is a day my wife and I have been working very hard toward for several months. Now that it’s here, there’s a sense of relief, but also excitement for what the weeks and months ahead hold for us and our website.
We have big dreams for The Athletic Ummah. Not only do we want to be a safe, welcoming hub for Muslims to share their passion for sports, but we’re also aiming to be the leading website for Muslim sports journalism. These are ambitious goals, but we are ambitious people, and with Allah’s (s.w.t) help, we hope to realize them.
One of the ways we plan on achieving our goals is through the Friday Fill-in. This will be a weekly newsletter-style piece published every Friday, the holiest day of the week in Islam. These posts will recap some of the top Muslim-interest sports stories of the week, highlight a noteworthy Muslim sports story that the average fan may have missed, and recognize the week’s top Muslim athlete, be they professional, amateur or otherwise. We’ve also got a fun “guess the Muslim athlete” trivia question at the end of each post. That answer will be revealed on Instagram, so be sure to follow us there to see if you guessed correctly.
The goal of the Friday Fill-in is to keep our readers informed about the week’s top Muslim sports news and to connect with our audience in meaningful ways. Of course, as this is our first edition of the Friday Fill-in, we may make some future tweaks to the format to better achieve our goals — and we welcome your feedback. We’re always open to input from our audience because as a Muslim sports journalism website, we want to make sure Muslims are accurately represented in the world of sports.
With that said, here is the inaugural edition of the Friday Fill-in. I hope this post, as well as the other content currently on our website, makes you as excited for the future of The Athletic Ummah as we are.
The Headlines
Celtic fans unite behind Palestine: Days after several European football clubs punished their Muslim players for pro-Palestine posts, thousands of Celtic FC fans rallied behind Palestine by waving the country’s flag during their UEFA Champions League game against Atlético Madrid. Celtic supporters, who’ve waved Palestine’s flag in previous games, defied club orders to refrain from displaying their support in the stands. They also sang “You’ll Never Walk Alone” during the display. Celtic and Atleti drew 2-2.
Mohamed Salah breaks another record: Mohamed Salah has been a record-breaker since joining Liverpool in 2016, and Thursday was no different. His goal in the Reds’ 5-1 win over Toulouse in the UEFA Europa League was the Egyptian’s 43rd in European competitions for Liverpool. That goal broke Salah clear of Thierry Henry’s record of 42 European goals for an English club, a record that had stood for 17 years.
Muslim fighters dominate UFC 294 in UAE: Saturday’s UFC 294 event in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, was largely dominated by Muslim fighters and fighters from Muslim-majority regions. In the preliminary card, flyweight fighter Muhammad Mokaev defeated Tim Elliott via a submission; and in the main card, all but one of the Muslim fighters who participated (excluding Kamaru Usman) won their fight. This includes Khamzat Chimaev, who defeated Usman by decision and dedicated his post-fight interview to the kids in Afghanistan, Syria & Palestine; and Islam Makhachev, who defended his Lightweight belt by knocking out Alexander Volkanovski with a head kick and punches.
What You Might’ve Missed
Tonight’s 2023 World Series opener between the Texas Rangers and the Arizona Diamondbacks may be the biggest baseball event of the year, but the sport’s most intriguing story happened earlier this week — not in the heat of Arlington, Texas, but in the glamorous city of Dubai, UAE.
On Oct. 23, the first Baseball United Draft took place Monday in the Middle Eastern city. Right-handed pitcher Karan Patel was selected 1st overall in the monumental draft, which also saw the likes of former MLBers Didi Gregorius, Robinson Canó, Pablo Sandoval and even Bartolo Colon get picked.
The league was founded on July 26, 2022, and is currently comprised of four teams: the UAE’s Dubai Wolves and Abu Dhabi Falcons, India’s Mumbai Cobras and Pakistan’s Karachi Monarchs.
Some big names have invested in the league. Baseball United’s founding stakeholders were hall-of-famers Mariano Rivera and Barry Larkin. Former major leaguers Adrian Beltre, Chris Sabo and Miguel Tejada have also joined as individual team managers.
Although the inaugural draft appears to have been a success, Baseball United will have a huge mountain to climb if it wants to realize its goal of bringing professional baseball to the Middle East and South Asia. Baseball is a totally foreign sport in the Middle East, while Pakistan and India are ruled by cricket, another bat-and-ball sport.
For now, Baseball United is set to begin competition in the United Arab Emirates on Nov. 24, when two all-star teams face off in a two-game series in Dubai. But only time will tell if professional baseball will catch on in the region.
Muslim Athlete of the Week
As mentioned earlier, Muslim fighters were the top performers at last weekend’s UFC 294 event in Abu Dhabi. But with respect to everyone else, I think Islam Makhachev deserves a special mention for his highlight-reel victory over Alexander Volkanovski.
Saturday’s bout was initially supposed to see Makhachev defend his Lightweight belt against the former champion Charles Oliveira, who he beat by submission at UFC 280 in October 2022. However, Oliveira withdrew due to injury and was replaced by UFC Featherweight champion Alexander Volkanoski, whom Makhachev had bested via unanimous decision earlier this year.
Although it took five rounds and a decision to defeat Volkanovski in February, Makhachev needed just over 3 minutes to best the Featherweight champion this time around. In Saturday’s headline bout, the 32-year-old Russian knocked Volkanovski down with an awesome head kick before finishing the fight shortly after with strikes on the ground. It was the first time Volkanovski had lost a fight by KO/TKO since 2013.
With the victory, Makhachev retained his Lightweight championship for the second fight in a row. It was also his 13th win in a row, and earned him the Performance of the Night award. For these reasons, Makhachev is The Athletic Ummah’s Muslim Athlete of the Week.
Who’s That Athlete?
“Who’s That Athlete?” is our weekly quiz, where we give you three hints about a Muslim athlete and you have to guess who that athlete is. Here are this week’s hints:
-I attended the Cleveland Summit, a meeting of prominent Black athletes who convened in support of Muhammad Ali’s refusal to fight in the Vietnam War.
-I was drafted 1st overall by the Milwaukee Bucks in 1969.
-I scored a then-NBA record 38,387 points during my 20-year pro career.
Who’s That Athlete? Let us know on Instagram before we reveal the answer on Sunday.
If you would like to contribute to The Athletic Ummah, or have an idea that you would like to pitch, email us: TheAthleticUmmah@gmail.com.
[…] Last week’s answer was basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Here are this week’s hints: […]
[…] In one of our first ever stories, we wrote about Baseball United. This was a four-team professional baseball league based in the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and India — a first of its kind in the Middle East and south Asia. […]