The outrage is over Pakistan’s Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Link Pakistan’s cricket win over India to Islam and claim that Muslims around the world, including India, were emotionally attached to Pakistan during the game.
The outrage was even greater than the former Pakistani captain and pacemaker Waqar Younis said that the moment of the game between India and Pakistan For him, in Dubai was Mohammed Rizwan, who offered Namaz on the ground in front of Hindus. Amid intense criticism, including former Indian pacemaker Venkatesh Prasad, who denounced this mindset and labeled it disgusting and jihad, Younis apologized. But those who are surprised should look deeper.
There is a story of Pakistani cricketers using Islam and religious terminology in the gentlemen’s game, especially when it comes to games between India and Pakistan. Ambassador G. Parthasarathy, India’s former High Commissioner for Pakistan, cited a 1982 incident involving Imran Khan, the former Pakistani cricket captain and acting prime minister. Imran Khan was quoted as saying that he saw Indo-Pakistani cricket games not as a game, but as jihad for Kashmir.
ALSO READ: So who actually trolled Mohd Shami? | OUTLOOK
“I don’t see cricket with India as a game, but as jihad for Kashmir,” Imran Khan was widely quoted as saying. But even before that, in 1978, when cricket relations between India and Pakistan were resumed after a break of nearly two decades, Team India traveled to Pakistan for a series of tests. Mushtaq Mohammed, the then captain of the Pakistani cricket team, said after Pakistan’s victory in the test series that the victory was “the victory of Muslims around the world over the Hindus”.
A cricket match between India and Pakistan is anything but sport for the Pakistani players. Madan Lal, a member of the Indian team that won the 1983 World Cup, told me on India First that part of the problem was the lack of education in Pakistan. “Most Pakistani cricketers are uneducated, and this is reflected not only in their conversations but also in what they say.” In fact, Bigot-e-Azams on the Pakistani cricket team have boasted of converting foreign players to friendly matches.
Inzamam-ul-Haq, a former Pakistani cricket captain, bragged on camera about former Pakistani batsman Mohammed Yusuf (who himself converted from Christianity to Islam, Yousuf Youhana became Mohd Yusuf) trying to beat Brian Lara during the Karachi friendly match convert to Islam after inviting him for a meal.
ALSO READ: Jammu: Hospital Technician Loses Government Job Over WhatsApp Status, “Celebrating” Pak’s T20 Match
Shahid Afridi, a former Pakistani cricket captain, once again bragged about the destruction of a television at home after watching his daughter imitate Aarti on television in an Indian television series. And Rawalpindi Express Shoaib Akhtar spoke on camera about Ghazwa-e-Hind and Muslims attacking Kashmir and the rest of India to build an empire from Attock to Cuttack.
International cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle was also shocked by Waqar Younis ‘testimony and went to Twitter to say, “For a person of Waqar Younis’ stature to say that it was very special for him to watch Rizwan. how he offered namaz in front of Hindus Disappointing things I heard. I really hope that many real sports lovers in Pakistan can see the dangerous side of this statement and join my disappointment. ” He then went on to say that it is very difficult for sports lovers like us to try, say it folks, it is just sport, just a cricket match. ”
Cricketers are not only seen as ambassadors for sport, but also as ambassadors for their country. This is exactly what Pakistani cricketers are: ambassadors of the radicalized Islamic State of Pakistan.
(The views expressed are personal)
ALSO READ: OPINION | Cry my beloved Bangladesh, cry!
ALSO READ: OPINION | Kashmir at a Crossroads: Development or Radical Islamist Terror?
एक टिप्पणी भेजें