Higher Calling

Hamza and Husain Abdullah are making headlines this year in the football world.  Not because of their play, but because they are not playing.  They have both decided to sit out the entire 2012 season in order to travel across the country and speak at mosques and eventually both will be making a pilgrimage to Mecca.  They are not the biggest names in the league, they haven't had the most illustrious careers, they are just there.  Playing the game they love and collecting paychecks.  Both are aware that sitting out this year may mean the end of their careers, but they both seem to be okay with it. 

This isn't the first time they have made headlines when it comes to their religion and profession.  Each year they observe Ramadan in which they do not eat or drink for thirty days during the daylight hours.  In an interview from 2010, Husain said: 

"I'm putting nothing before God, nothing before my religion.  This is something I choose to do, not something I have to do. So I'm always going to fast."

This is great for them, their family, and their faith.  They were brought up a certain way and they haven't let football get in the way of that upbringing.  They are being solid pillars within the Muslim communities across the country.  The thing is, this doesn't seem to be a huge story in the sports world.  I only caught wind of it because there wasn't much on early Sunday morning and I stopped to watch Outside the Lines on ESPN.  As I was watching I couldn't help but think of how big a deal this would have been if it had been a huge name in the sport.  The Abdullah brothers have decided to step away from the headlines and the hundreds of thousands of dollars to do what they thought was right.  What they knew they needed to do for their own personal and religious reasons. 

 One player that is lauded for his outspoken religious devotion is Tim Tebow.  Everyone knows that.  Now imagine him putting his career on hold to do mission work for an entire year.  What would ESPN do?!  They wouldn't be able to cover the daily Tim Tebow happenings.  And, just throwing my opinion out there, his leaving the NFL for a year to do that missionary work would be a huge deal because he is a Christian, not because he is a great player.  He is a good athlete, not a good player.  The Abdullah brothers' decision doesn't garner much attention partly because they aren't big name players, but I also think that partly because they are Muslim.

Let's be honest, that last statement is a fact.  Despite the fact that Islam is the second most popular religion in the world, there is an obvious stigma in this country.  No matter how far away from 2001 we get, there is always going to be that second thought in peoples' minds that they connect the religion with an attack, WHICH IS WRONG BY THE WAY!  And there is no way to tip toe around the issue, so that's all I have to say on the subject.