Skip to main content

Australia’s First Muslim Basketball Coach Readies for New Season

  • Mahmoud Abdelfattah is the first Muslim coach in a major Australian professional sport will lead NBL champions Sydney Kings
  • Mahmoud sees his mission as far beyond basketball and coaching, and he wants to be a role model for others

Winning the NBA G-League last year, Palestinian Muslim basketball coach Mahmoud Abdelfattah is getting ready for a new achievement, becoming the first Muslim coach in a major Australian professional sport.

Mahmoud will lead NBL champions Sydney Kings, seeing his mission as far beyond basketball and coaching.

📚 Read Also: Australian Police Join Imams for Football Fun

“I know I’m impacting someone’s life, and the reason why I’m doing what I’m doing is to be able to be that role model that I was looking for growing up,” he told SBS.

“Because it was always easier when you can relate to someone and there were no Muslims, no Palestinians I could reach out to via social media, to say, hey can you help me get in?

“Now, InshaAllah, I can be that for others. I’m willing and open – just to be available, to talk to somebody if it’s a message if it’s a phone call.”  

Faith

For Mahmoud, it’s faith that keeps him grounded. He fasts on Monday and Thursday and centers his life around his five daily prayers.

“I’m here, I’m fasting, I’m not thinking about food or water, it’s just the mentality of being mentally strong, and that’s what I try to preach to these guys.

“Whatever you believe in, you’ve got to wake up every morning believing in something, whatever you have faith in, whether it’s your work ethic, your family, your friends, your religion, for me, it’s my religion, and I know what my religion does for my work, for my job.”  

Paul Smith, the owner and chairman of the Sydney Kings, said it was Mahmoud’s unwavering commitment to Islam that partly earned him the respect to get the top job.

“Mahmoud was very open and forward with his commitment to his faith, the expectations he has with the food he eats, the way he conducts himself, the language he uses, and so on and so forth, and I really respected that,” he said.

“I just think we’re ready for this. I think it’s been a challenge for us to establish ourselves with multicultural credentials in this sport. We feel we want to be a broad church that everyone can be a part of, and we hope that Mahmoud can achieve that journey for us as we get started in that process.”

According to the 2016 Australian Census, the number of Muslims in Australia constituted 604,200 people, or 2.6% of the total country’s population.

This makes Islam the second-largest religious grouping in Australia after Christianity.

The post Australia’s First Muslim Basketball Coach Readies for New Season appeared first on About Islam.



source https://aboutislam.net/muslim-issues/australia/australias-first-muslim-basketball-coach-readies-for-new-season/
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

List of Times and Places Where Dua is Accepted

A short reminder regarding the recommended times of dua . And I think what you need to know here is that the recommended times of dua or recommended things that can cause your dua to be accepted, can be divided into two sort of large groups: Am I Good Enough to Make Dua for Myself? Situations where your dua is accepted. Times where your dua is accepted So I’m going to very briefly mention them one after the other as much as possible. As for situations where your dua has been accepted: – The person who has been wronged or oppressed . – A person who finds themselves in severe difficulty after a calamity has struck. – The person who is traveling. – Someone who is fasting. – The one who is reciting the Quran or has just recited the Quran – Someone who is performing Hajj or Umrah or jihad. – The one who is making dua for someone in their absence . Because we know that when you make dua for someone in his absence an angel says: “ Ameen and to you”. – A person...
Post a Comment
Read More »

Derechos de Las Mujeres en Islam

Durante el Tiempo del Profeta (la paz sea con él) Veamos cómo fueron tratadas las mujeres de todo el mundo durante la época del Profeta (la paz sea con él). En la Europa del siglo VIII, la religión principal era el catolicismo y durante este tiempo debatían si las mujeres tenían alma. Dijeron que las mujeres eran impuras y que no tenían derecho a la herencia. A las mujeres tampoco se les permitía tocar la Biblia. No era como ahora en el Islam, donde ellas no pueden tocar el Corán durante la menstruación, pero a las mujeres en la Europa del siglo VIII nunca se les permitió tocar la Biblia. En China e India, fueron quemadas vivas cuando murieron sus maridos. En Arabia Saudita practicaron infanticidio femenino en el que, si nacía una niña, la enterrarían viva. Si el marido de una mujer muere, un miembro de su familia se unirá a ella para demostrar que ahora es de su propiedad. Mujeres en el Islam Con el Islam llegó una nueva era para las mujeres. En el Islam, las mujeres tienen la...
Post a Comment
Read More »

Ghuraba (The Strangers): Nasheed with English Subtitles

Islam began as something strange, and it shall return to being something strange, so give glad tidings the strangers. (Sahih Muslim 145) This famous nasheed has many versions; this one is from Muhammad al-Salman and has the subtitles in English embedded. [We are] strangers and we do not bow the foreheads to anyone besides Allah  […] Transliteration to help in the pronounciation:  Ghurabaa’ wa li ghairillaahi laa nahnil jibaa Aisha Stacey  wrote in an article for Aboutislam.net : “I think that many of you would agree that being Muslim in the 21st century makes you well acquainted with being strange. It might even be a metaphor for random, as in you have been randomly selected. […] many converts to Islam will tell you about feeling as if they were strangers, before finding Islam. They will speak of feeling that they belonged somewhere else that their lives were just slightly off center. They often speak about a vague sense of knowing they were not like everyone else...
Post a Comment
Read More »