13 Rules For Playing Muslim Soccer

SHARIA ON THE FIELD The page from the Web site of the Saudi newspaper Al Watan with the soccer fatwa. Photo Credit: New York Times
There is no small number of writers who wonder why the Muslim world is so backward, so un-enlightened, so ignorant and so opposed to every advance of modern civilization. The answer is quite simple: Mohammed ordered that it be so, "whosoever imitates a group of people becomes one of them." (1) In the same manner, participating in dance, music, sports, fashion, or entertainment is likewise frowned upon because it is imitating the actions of the unbelievers.
For example, in 2003 some devout clerics issued a fatwa against the playing of soccer except under specific conditions that follow Shariah rulings. One of the reasons for the fatwa is that no game should be played by a Muslim unless the purpose is physical training for jihad.
Indeed, a few Saudi soccer players, inspired by the fatwa, actually quit their teams (2) and went to wage jihad in Iraq.
Al Watan, a semiofficial Saudi daily newspaper, republished the fatwa on 25 Aug 2005, said to have originally appeared on an Islamic Web site. I selected 13 of the silliest portions of the fatwa, translated from the Arabic in an Op-Ed piece from the New York Times, below:
IN the name of God the merciful and benevolent:
These are some conditions and precepts so that morally aware youth do not inadvertently imitate heretics and polytheists when playing soccer ... Hell awaits those who die playing soccer according to rules established by heretical countries, at the head of which is America.
- Play soccer without four lines because this is a fabrication of the heretics' international rules that stipulate using them and delineating them before playing.
- International terminology that heretics and polytheists use, like "foul," "penalty," "corner," "goal," "out" and others, should be abandoned and not said. Whoever says them should be punished, reprimanded and ejected from the game. He should be publicly told, "You have imitated the heretics and polytheists and this is forbidden.
- Do not call "foul" and stop the game if someone falls and sprains a hand or foot or the ball touches his hand, and do not give a yellow or red card to whoever was responsible for the injury or tackle. Instead, it should be adjudicated according to Sharia rulings concerning broken bones and injuries. The injured player should exercise his Sharia rights according to the Koran and you must bear witness with him that so-and-so hurt him on purpose.
- Do not follow the heretics, the Jews, the Christians and especially evil America regarding the number of players. Do not play with 11 people. Instead, add to this number or decrease it.
- Play in your regular clothes or your pajamas or something like that, but not colored shorts and numbered T-shirts, because shorts and T-shirts are not Muslim clothing. Rather they are heretical and Western clothing, so beware of imitating their fashion.
- If you have fulfilled these conditions and intend to play soccer, play to strengthen the body in order to better struggle in the way of God on high and to prepare the body for when it is called to jihad. Soccer is not for passing time or the thrill of so-called victory.
- If neither of you beats the other, or "wins" as it is called, and neither puts the leather between the posts, do not add extra time or penalties until someone wins. No, instead leave the field, because winning with overtime and penalty kicks is the pinnacle of imitating heretics and international rules.
- If you play soccer, do not appoint someone to follow you called a "referee," since there is no need for him after doing away with international rules like "foul," "penalty," "corner" and others. His presence would be in imitation of the heretics, Jews and Christians and would follow international rules.
- Young crowds should not gather to watch when you play because if you are there for the sake of sports and strengthening your bodies as you claimed, why would people watch you? You should make them join your physical fitness and jihad preparation, or you should say: "Go proselytize and seek out morally reprehensible acts in the markets and the press and leave us to our physical fitness."
- If you finish playing soccer, do not talk about your game and say, "We were better than the opponent," or "So-and-so plays well" and so on. Instead be concerned with your bodies and their strength and muscles, and say, "We played only to drill in running, attacking and retreating, and to prepare for jihad in the name of God on high."
- You should spit in the face of whoever puts the ball between the posts or uprights and then runs in order to get his friends to follow him and hug him like players in America or France do, and you should punish and reprimand him, for what is the relationship between celebrating, hugging and kissing and the sports that you are practicing
- You should use two posts instead of three pieces of wood or steel that you erect in order to put the ball between them, meaning that you should remove the crossbar in order not to imitate the heretics and in order to be entirely distinct from the soccer system's despotic international rules.
- Do not do what is called "substitution," that is, taking the place of someone who has fallen, because this is a practice of the heretics in America and elsewhere.
This article is filed under Muslims are Funny.
This has been a Thursday 13 post [# 64] and is updated on some Thursdays.
ENDNOTES
(1):
Musnad of Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, 50/3; Sunan of Abu Daud, 5021, and on the hadith: "Don't resemble the Jews and the Christians," which is included in the Sunan of Al-Tirmidhi.
(2):
The Middle East Media Research Institute, Anti-Soccer Fatwas Led Saudi Soccer Players to Join the Jihad in Iraq
The Saudi daily Al-Watan reported recently that Islamic extremists were inciting Saudi soccer players to quit their teams and wage jihad in Iraq. According to these reports, the young athletes were influenced by fatwas forbidding the game of soccer except when played under certain conditions and with the express intention of using the game as physical training for jihad. Saudi sheikhs and intellectuals have criticized the fatwas and the religious authorities that issued them.
On August 22, 2005, Al-Watan reported that the soccer players involved in this affair were from the Al-Taif region, and that some of them belonged to the region's well-known Al-Rashid team." [1] In another article, Al-Rashid captain Ja'far 'Attas said that three of his players had left the team.
...
One of the three, Majid Al-Sawat, was arrested while planning to carry out a suicide bombing in Iraq.

