After Controversy, Muslim Players Set Interfaith Football Tournament
Muslim flag football players in Orange County, some of whose team names sparked protest, plan to hold a second tournament this summer -- in which Christians, Jews and those of other religions will be invited to play.
The group’s Interfaith Tournament, which will be put on with the help of the Southern California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, is intended to leave the politics of the first event on the sidelines.
“They want to turn it into an opportunity to interact with others, socialize and do their favorite thing: play football,” said Hussam Ayloush, the chapter’s executive director. “In addition, they’ll be sending a message and making a statement to everybody in the community who had doubts about them.”
The players -- U.S. Muslim men in their teens and 20s -- made world headlines in December when some of them adopted team names associated in recent years with violence and terrorism: Soldiers of Allah, Moujahedeen and Intifada.
The players said the monikers were nothing more than signs of football toughness and a show of support for Middle Eastern Muslims. The Arabic terms, they pointed out, have historically honorable meanings -- moujahedeen, for instance, means “holy warrior” -- that had been corrupted by extremists.
But the names angered Jewish groups. Even some local Islamic leaders, including Ayloush, advised the players to change them, saying the exercise in free speech was, in fact, sending the wrong message. All but one team did, and the advice to minimize such controversy continues.
“That will be my advice again: Keep this about football,” Ayloush said.
He said the council decided to play a more active role in the next tournament and reach out to other religious groups, but also to help the Muslim players understand the power of words and images. “We want to sensitize our youth without undermining their freedom of speech,” Ayloush said.
He said details of the next tournament, to be held this summer, have yet to be worked out, but that churches and synagogues would be formally invited to field teams.
Shelley Rubin, a spokeswoman for the Jewish Defense League, which sent protesters to the Jan. 4 games in Irvine, said, “We have no problem if they don’t use names that glorify the murder of Jews and other innocents.”
Joyce Greenspan, regional director of the Orange County/Long Beach chapter of the Anti-Defamation League, sees a “teachable moment” in a second tournament, open to more religions and with controversial team names dropped.
