Malaysian muslim clerics #fundie

Malaysian muslim clerics #fundie news.sky.com

[Background: Manchester United Football Club has a devil as its logo]

Manchester United shirts have been banned in Malaysia after the red devil crest was labelled "dangerous and un-Islamic".

Thousands of fans have reacted angrily to the decision by Muslim clerics - with some accusing them of supporting Premier League arch-rivals Liverpool.

Despite the Old Trafford side having an estimated 81 million followers in Asia, one senior cleric said: "You are only promoting the devil."

"This is very dangerous. As a Muslim we should not worship the symbols of other religions or the devils," another added.

"It will erode our belief in Islam. There is no reason why we as Muslims should wear such jerseys, either for sports or fashion reasons."

66 comments

old comment by Brain_In_A_Jar

Now this is rather interesting - since the tribalistic nature of massed sports fans is really quite remarkably similar to religion in many ways, it'll be interesting to see which one ultimately trumps the other in the minds of these supporters - the religion of Islam, or the religion of Manchester United. Whichever wins the day, it could be quite a fight.

It seems as if these nutjobs have quite simply become addicted to the giddy power trip they get from banning things. However, though it may seem to them that they have the power to ban anything they want, there's a limit to how much of that shit any public will put up with, and football is a big target.

old comment by Mister Spak

Maybe they'd like these teams better:

http://rabble.ca/babble/anti-racism-news-and-initiatives/racism-sports

There's a team in Jerusalem called Betar Yerushalyim whose base of support is really strong among very right wing religious zionists. I was at a game where fans unvelied a Kahance/Chai banner. This is an organization that has been banned by the Israeli government after some of its members engaged in attacks against Arab civilians. At another game (I wasn't in attendance) that occurred on the anniversary of the assassiantion of Yitzhak Rabin, the announcer called for a moment of silence which was met by most of the stadium loudly booing before breaking into chance of "Amir! Amir!". Yigal Amir was convicted of Rabin's assassination.

In the Palestinian Territories, because there's not as much infrastructure or wealth to support major sports, it's on a smaller scale but even more extreme. I went to a youth soccer match in Nablus where isntead of the national anthem before teh game, there was about an hour of fiery political speeches (though i don't speak Arabic). In the youth leagues, lots of teams have names such as The Martyrs or The Mujahadeen.

I have a brother who works for the UN and is based in Denmark and a big soccer fan and went to a game tehre and told me that there's a particular team comprised mostly of Muslim immigrants to Denmark and is supported by that country's large Muslim population. There's also a team that these fans see as "Jewish" because one of their players is an Israeli immigrant. He said that several times during the game, the fans broke into chants of "Hamas! Hamas! Jews to the gas!."

old comment by Horsefeathers

"Manchester United shirts have been banned in Malaysia after the red devil crest was labelled "dangerous and un-Islamic"."

I have no interest in sports of any kind but even I know better than to screw with Manchester United fans.

This was not a brilliant move on your part.

"Thousands of fans have reacted angrily to the decision by Muslim clerics - with some accusing them of supporting Premier League arch-rivals Liverpool."

See? Now you've gone and done it.

"Despite the Old Trafford side having an estimated 81 million followers in Asia, one senior cleric said: "You are only promoting the devil.""

You're really looking for an ass whooping, aren't you?

""This is very dangerous. As a Muslim we should not worship the symbols of other religions or the devils," another added."

Yes. Dangerous for you. Many people take the sport very seriously. More seriously than your bullshit religion, I would venture to say.

""It will erode our belief in Islam. There is no reason why we as Muslims should wear such jerseys, either for sports or fashion reasons.""

Then, how will you know whose ass to kick for supporting a rival team?

old comment by Anon-e-moose

"Manchester United shirts have been banned in Malaysia after the red devil crest was labelled "dangerous and un-Islamic".

Thousands of fans have reacted angrily to the decision by Muslim clerics - with some accusing them of supporting Premier League arch-rivals Liverpool.

Despite the Old Trafford side having an estimated 81 million followers in Asia, one senior cleric said: "You are only promoting the devil."

"This is very dangerous. As a Muslim we should not worship the symbols of other religions or the devils," another added.

"It will erode our belief in Islam. There is no reason why we as Muslims should wear such jerseys, either for sports or fashion reasons."

Man Utd. is the biggest, most famous, richest, and thus the most powerful football club on the planet. Thus they have a legal department.

What's to stop it's chairman Sir Bobby Charlton from taking legal proceedings against the Malaysian government, via it's own legislature, to force you to accept that the Red Devil logo on their shirts isn't of the 'Devil'?

Via the same method, they've forced the Chinese government to stop factories illegally manufacturing replica Man Utd shirts. And said factories were state owned ones.

Your call, Malaysian govt.

Malaysian muslim clerics #fundie news.sky.com

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