Jumu’ah mubarak! The Friday Fill-in is The Athletic Ummah’s weekly news roundup. If you have a story or athlete you’d like to pitch for it, email us at TheAthleticUmmah@gmail.com.
The Headlines
PFL acquires Bellator MMA: The Professional Fighters League has acquired Bellator MMA in a landmark deal for combat sports. The Bellator brand will still run as a separate, reimagined product in 2024, but all Bellator-signed athletes can now compete on PFL platforms. Furthermore, the PFL is planning a mega-event in 2024, featuring champion vs. champion match-ups between the two promotions. Usman Nurmagomedov and Magomed Magomedkerimov are some of the top Muslim talents competing in the two promotions.
Muhammad Mokaev calls out Israeli MMA fighter: UFC flyweight fighter Muhammad Mokaev has called out Israeli MMA fighter Oron Kahlon for a post wishing for the deaths and severe agony of “everyone living in Gaza from the youngest baby to the old man.” In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Mokaev said he’d “smash his face” and asked the UFC to give him this fight, despite the two being in different weight classes. Mokaev has won 11 of his 12 professional fights and is undefeated in the UFC.
FA council member resigns after Netanyahu-Hitler comparison post: Wasim Haq has resigned as a member of the Football Association council after a social media post claiming “Adolf Hitler would be proud of Benjamin Netanyahu.” Haq, who was suspended for the post earlier this month, said his decision to step down was the “best course of action for the FA and myself,” but reiterated that his comments weren’t aimed at the Jewish community. His now-deleted post on X read: “Netanyahu has sacrificed his own people to maintain power…whilst #Palestinians are trying to maintain their sanity. Adolf Hitler would be proud of Benjamin Netanyahu.”
What You Might’ve Missed
Question for my BIPOC brothers and sisters: How many times have you heard a person accused of racism try to defend themselves by claiming “I can’t be racist, I have BIPOC friends”?
Well, a referee in the Thai third division has somehow managed to one-up this ridiculous excuse by claiming he couldn’t have been racist to a Black Muslim player because he has darker skin compared to the typical Thai individual.
La hawla wa la quwata illa billah…
The context of this unbelievable claim takes us back to late October. During a Thai League 3 football match between Pattaya United and Prachinburi City on Oct. 29, referee Somsak Poosomnuek was accused of using a racist slur on Thai-Ghanaian player Abdulkordiri Hamid. According to one Reddit user, it’s the Thai equivalent of the N-word, though it lacks the historical and social baggage the English word carries.
The accusation came from the player himself, who wrote on his personal Facebook page: “I speak from the heart, you can call me whatever, I’ve never been angry about it. But as a referee, you should use better words. Calling me ‘dark’ is not appropriate.”
Hamid, who plays as a striker for Prachinburi, was defended by his club. “Mocking or belittling based on nationality, religion, or ethnicity should not happen in the Thai football community,” they wrote on their own Facebook page.
“This is not the first time that Abdul, a Thai national by birth, has faced skin color discrimination. However, this time, it seems more severe than what has come from the mouths of ‘referees’ in the past.”
Poosomnuek, who said he didn’t even know Hamid speaks Thai, tried to defend himself by claiming he was merely referring to dark skin in general. He also said his friends have called him by the same slur throughout his life, and that he called Hamid that because he didn’t know his name.
That shaky defence was for naught though, as earlier this week, Thailand’s Football Association issued a lifetime ban on Poosomnuek, following an investigation made by the Association and police.
The association concluded that the slur amounted to racial discrimination — contrary to Poosomnuek’s claims — and that it had damaged the image of the football association in Thailand.
In an era where a global superstar like Real Madrid’s Vinícius Júnior faces repeated racial abuse by some Spanish fans while La Liga’s president rants about his complaints, it’s good to see a football association back their player and make sure the situation is handled appropriately.
Muslim Athlete of the Week
I’m going to be honest, I’m not a basketball fan — you may have noticed that from the lack of basketball stories in the Friday Fill-ins.
I know that’s not fair to the many basketball lovers who read these pieces. Basketball is an incredibly popular sport among Muslim sports fans, and this newsletter should cover *all* Muslim-interest sports stories. So this week, I challenged myself to find at least one basketball-related story that I could cover in the Friday Fill-in.
Fortunately for me, Kyrie Irving went on a tear in the NBA this week, so he was an easy pick for Muslim Athlete of the Week.
Irving isn’t a cop-out pick, though. The Dallas Mavericks guard was one of the top basketball players from the past week. On Saturday, Nov. 18, Irving registered a season-high 39 points on 16-29 shooting from the field, in the Mavericks’ 132-125 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.
The following day, he put up 23 points — just a point shy of his season average — on 8-17 shooting from the field, in his side’s 129-113 loss to the Sacremento Kings.
But Irving’s most important performance came in the mid-week game against LeBron James’ Los Angeles Lakers. Despite a 26-point effort from James, Irving had a variety of big plays in clutch time to seal a 104-101 Mavericks victory. These include the team’s final seven points of the night and a three-pointer with 21 seconds to go to give Dallas the lead for good.
His 26 points also moved him ahead of Kiki Vandeweghe and Amar’e Stoudemire in the NBA’s all-time scorers table, into 118th place with 16,003 career points. He’s now four points away from surpassing Rasheed Wallace and Derek Harper for 116th place, and just 958 points away from a top 100 spot.
For the icing on the cake, Irving expressed his support for the Palestinian people, when he showed up to the game against the Bucks in a keffiyeh. He then wore the same keffiyeh in the post-game presser.
It’s the latest in a long list of supportive actions Irving has done for the Palestinian cause.
For dominating on the basketball court and supporting Palestinians off of it, Kyrie Irving 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.
Last week’s answer was ice hockey superstar Nazem Kadri. Here are this week’s hints:
-I won 56 of the 61 boxing fights I participated in, including 37 by knockout.
-I was named the Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated in 1999.
-I refused to be drafted into the military in 1966, due to my religious beliefs and opposition to the Vietnam War.
Who’s That Athlete? Let us know on Instagram (the.athletic.ummah) before we reveal the answer in next week’s Friday Fill-In.
Headline image credit: Morry Gash/Associated Press
[…] Last week’s answer was boxing legend and activist Muhammad Ali. […]