Monday, January 04, 2010

What Do Brit Hume And Mohammad Yousuf Have In Common?

Well, it's certainly not a sweet cover drive, though in all fairness, I've never seen ol' Brit play cricket.

No, I'm referring to their proclivity to evangelize when the situation really, really does not call for it. Here's Brit Hume telling Tiger Woods to convert to Christianity because, you know, he cheated on his wife and stuff, and he needs to find a redemptive faith (no, seriously).



And this is what Yousuf was up to last month in New Zealand:
Yousuf told people there that he tries to preach Islam on his cricket tours abroad, saying that he invited top cricketers like West Indian great Brian Lara and New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori in a bid to provide them with a better understanding of Islam.

“We had a session with Brian Lara when he came to Pakistan and told him things about Islam he didn’t know,” said the Pakistan captain, who began his cicketing career as a Christian but converted to Islam in 2005 changing his name from Yousuf Youhana to Mohammad Yousuf.

“When we were in New Zealand last month, I invited Vettori for a similar session,” he said.

Sigh.

41 comments:

FJ said...

Baning my head against the wall in utter helpless disgust after exasperated howls of disbelief and denial!

Preaching on his own time is okay, but youre fucking out there to play for your country, not spread the official religion of your country!!

Aarrgh!! ... and SIGH, again!

@$#!@#@!#%@#$@#$@#$@#$@!#!@#!#!@#!!@!!!!!!

Ahsan said...

Haha for sure. BTW, I really wonder what Vettori thought of all this?

mcphisto said...

Vettori, and Lara - i`d like to know both their opinion about 'these enlightening sessions'.

though i feel vettori must have thought if he converts, we may tell him the art of reverse swing ?

GQ said...

Nice timing, Ahsan. You're gonna do everything to bring him down before he achieves anything. Typical Pakistani..

/sg said...

@GQ: Ahsan only posted what was in "The News" already. so I presume you are referring to that outstanding newspaper when you say "typical pakistani".


BTW, isn't converting religions banned in Pakistan? Or is it only converting from Islam to some other religion that is banned?

Umair Javed said...

converting from Islam to some other religion is banned because under the interpretation of the Hanafi school and another one of the 4 Mad'habs (i've forgotten which one), this practice is punishable by death. I dont know if its actually enforceable under the PPC but im sure people with such aspirations probably wont want to take the risk of getting lynched (such is the case in our country unfortunately)

GQ said...

@/sg: The News also publishes a boatload of bullshit everyday. Not that Ahsan repeats that, but yeah..

Ahsan said...

GQ:

I don't really understand your point to be honest. Is your complaint that I am forwarding something that could be false? Well, I doubt that (even though this is The News, and skepticism is always warranted) because the influence of all this Tableeghi stuff (which began under the Saeed Anwar/Inzi time) on our cricket team is well established.

On the other hand, you could also be criticizing the fact that I'm "bringing him down before he achieves anything". First of all, he's achieved plenty, and is our third best player in history. Second, I only wish I had the power to bring him (or anyone else) down or some such.

M. said...

Preaching on his own time is fine.....and even if he's doing it while on tour as long as it's not affecting his performance on the field, who cares.

GQ said...

My point is that who cares what he does off the field as long as he's not screwing up on it? OK yes preaching is silly, but if that is what he does in his free time than godspeed to him man, who are we to critique? It's not as if he's drunk and falling of a boat, or carrying opium in his wallet, or selling secrets to bookmakers, is it?

And anyway, the combination of religion and sport is not isolated to Pakistan. Please read up about Tim Tebow, the best college football player in history, and his preaching which has been eulogized, not castigated in the American press.

Brett said...

That seems like a typical flaw of devout converts from proselyting religions - they seem to assume that everybody is secretly looking for their faith. I hope that the soccer players at least got a free meal out of it.

FJ said...

All:
That was *banging my head* in my previous comment. Apologies for the typo.

GQ, M:
If MoYo is on tour, he is on official duty from the time he boards the plane to NZ till he lands back in Pakistan.

He HAS TO CONFORM to the tour itinerary. In his official capacity as captain, he has to set an example for the rest of the team in terms of his application, concentration, attitude, commitment, desire and body language.

On the NZ tour his priorities should have been queued like this:
1. The team spirit, body language & hunger to win.
2. The pathetic fielding of our team.
3. The struggling batsmen in the team.
4. The youngsters and their grooming.
5. Match strategy & tactics.
6. Team Selection.
7. His individual performance.
8. Saying something sensible at the match presentation ceremonies.
9. Solidifying his status as captain.
10. Younis Khan related issues.

Did he really get all that done before sauntering off with a tasbih & a topi? No. Did he even try doing that in the order mentioned above? Doubtful!

Antics like these beg questions about where his focus is?

And THAT my friends is what exasperates, produces howls of anguish & disbelief and to say the least, draws criticism.

You can do whatever you like in your spare time. But you fucking got to have time to spare to begin with!!

MoYo shouldn't have had a minute to spare on his first TEST series as captain!

Think about it: You're given the BIGGEST POSSIBLE job that your profession can offer you. You really think you'd loiter around in your spare time? SPARE TIME??!!

Whatever the fuck happened to going the extra mile FOR THE PURPOSE YOU'RE THERE FOR??!!

Inexcusable!! Fucking INEXCUSABLE!!!

GQ said...

Sigh, please read the article carefully. It says that he 'invited Vettori for a session'. Your argument is based on the assumption that they met, and when they did this 'session' was of a significant timeperiod and hence a distraction from the cricket. Now I don't know if they spent a weekend together locked in a mosque or something, but if you think spending a bit of time outside the game is a cardinal sin then you're either a robot or a 6-year old still learning to understand that a cricketer is a human being first.

Jaydev said...

I have a thing against organized religion. Its like 5Rs team convinces us to only read from this blog from now on. Why dont we just mix,match and cherry pick stuff according to our intellectual and spiritual capacity. Every philosophy and proponents of those philosophy has flaws..I mean like Gandhi's non-violence and sathyagraha is awesome and all..but he went on to give some creepy masochistic advise to Jews who asked for his help when they were being slaughtered.

Screamer said...

.... I think as long as no one is getting genital herpes, it's all good.

but I too wanna know what they thought. sigh.

Butterscotch said...

If the damn maulvi could preach the art of fielding or perhaps visit mosque every now n thn and pray for less drop catches less runouts miss, it would still make more sense. i mean he can do it in his official time. i dont mind at all..
but yeah
sigh

Butterscotch said...

and the entire team needs to sit in aitikaaf for Kamran's keeping

M. said...

FJ:

I agree. Now.

Had he been going the extra mile then tableegh would've been okay.

Cheers

Ahsan said...

Brett:

Haha, my American friend they are cricketers. I don't even think we have a soccer team. I mean technically we do, but they are outside the top 150 in FIFA's rankings.

On the general debate:

I really don't think Yousuf should be doing this as captain. If he was a regular player, then fine, go do what you want, but if he's doing this as captain, it assumes greater significance. And for what it's worth, I would have a problem with Shoaib Akhtar's, uh, extracurricular activities if he was captain too (but not otherwise).

Kaka said...

Nothing new, Pakistani players seem to find it necessary to express their religious beliefs whenever they see the camera. Injemam would say a long prayer before answering questions. The best was when a Paki captain 'apologized to all muslims' when he lost to India.

I guess that kind of behavior is common to recent converts who hide their deeper insecurity by staging a drama.

Anonymous said...

I don't think what he did was wrong. He has the courage and confidence to share his views on important aspects of life. If positive Muslims don't speak up about Islam; only the fanatics will be heard.

Anonymous said...

A nation that is built on a fundamentally flawed premise (of religion and the supremacy of that religion), cannot and will not survive - your cricketers and most commentators on this blog make interesting reading - no doubt the threat of Islam to the world is an existential threat to humanity (including you foolish mortals) and your nation is nothing but the fodder/pawn provider in this great war that is consuming a generation and will go well into the mid 21st century before Islam is finally destroyed....

karachikhatmal said...

i think everyone is missing the important point here...

if they had converted, what would vettori and lara's new muslim names be?

i am going for basheer lala and daniyal chaudry.

M. said...

@karachi khatama

hahaha but it's more pious to adopt mohammad, yusuf, mustafa etc

Anonymous said...

fuck it hurts so bad!

anoop said...

Remember Shoaib Malik(I think) apologized to ALL MUSLIMS OF THE WORLD for losing the T20 world cup to India? I was laughing my head off.. What about the Muslims in India who cheer for India? Or, the Muslim players who play for India? Do they secretly wish Pakistan won all the time Pakistan played? Or,what about people in Bangladesh?

I hope Danish Kaneria dies a non-muslim.. Even better he should convert to Christianity or the Sikh Religion.. That would be AWESOME! He could even name himself Yousuf Youhana.. Would be a slap in the face to all those people who want to convert all the people of Pakistan,not to mention the world,to Islam..

Poop said...

anoop, pitta jee is saying come over for lunch immediately or else he will do Blatkaar with u..

Ahsan said...

HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I honestly don't think I've enjoyed a heartbreaking loss as much as that one. I don't know what's wrong with me, but I really had fun during that collapse. That was something else.

Javaid said...

ahsan nervous break downs can be difficult to cope with. we will take this one step at a time. no need to get hysterical OK cos im here for u.

Anonymous said...

obviously it hasnt sunk in yet for u. and when it does, the throbbing pain shall fill every fucking crevice in ur body!!

Butterscotch said...

It takes one hell of an effort to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Pakistani team has done it again, proving immense consistency.
I think its not even annoying anymore. You just feel sad..sad sad for the sorry state of affairs.
Sorry for their mentality. A doomed cricket team perfectly representing a doomed nation.
Kamran deserves a special treatment
yaar ab tau ghussa bhi nahi araha..sirf shadeed dukh

FZ said...

what a ridiculous loss...and to make it worse looks like for Rs5 the crazies are back...maybe I'll have to bust out my defecation comment from last year...

Anonymous said...

Time to change your "Yeah Asif Yeah" to something like "Bring Younis back"

And who are they going to appropriate the matchfixing allegations to?

Anonymous said...

haha..Tigers quote from last year in that huffington link must be haunting him now

"It is all about what you do and you get out of it what you put into it"

Brett said...

Haha, my American friend they are cricketers. I don't even think we have a soccer team. I mean technically we do, but they are outside the top 150 in FIFA's rankings.

I unfortunately realized that after I posted. But yeah, Cricket and all that. The insects, I mean. ;D

Anonymous said...

Did i read this right?

"We have decided not to send Younus to Australia for the Tests as we already have a settled batting combination there and we don't want to upset it now after two Tests,"

http://www.espnstar.com/cricket/news/detail/item375192/PCB:-Younus-will-be-send-for-Aus-ODIs/

Saba F. Kamran said...

It's not a bad thing to give "dawat" to non-muslims and tell them about Islam..

We have a horrible image of Pakistan and Islam already in the eyes of every country, therefore we sure should use these national figures to tell those countries about us and about our peaceful Islam..

anoop said...

Sometimes perception is reality..

Baqwas said...

When Yousuf Youhana became Mohd. Yousuf, I thought he wanted to be the captain of the team. You know the whole religion in politics and stuff. To get the approval of the rest of the team.

I guess he actually lost his mind ..

Baqwas said...

@anoop : Good, I thought you only seemed like an ass ...

pakilee said...

No wonder the Paki Cricket team is so shitty! Dude u want to preach go and become a maulvi u're a cricketer so just shut u're mouth and play cricket! I too think he converted for politics. People know he would have never been made Kaptaan if he was Christian. He is just an idiot now another daari wala!