The Purpose of Sports Part I

As homeschooling Muslims in the West, it seems that we are a relatively untapped market. We are fledglings in a society that comes from the tradition of one-room school houses and bible-based schools. We are playing catch-up and don't always have affordable schools, curricula, qualified teachers and so on.

From time to time, I look at what the non-Muslim homeschoolers are doing, particularly those who implement religion in their day to day activities. If they have good ideas that are halal, I definitely exploit them.

In some ways they, like us, are trying to balance their religious life with the secular world around them. I would argue that they have an easier time since this society was built upon their founding father's religious ideals.
Still, they are facing the same challenges of seamlessly introducing their children into the post-secondary world as us. Take for example, this article which talks about homeschool sports and the new phenomena of talent-seeking scouts and agents.

This is not where our family is headed. Whether it be my son or daughters, I am not comfortable with them pursuing a sports career. Sports is a means to an end, but not an end in and of itself. Physical fitness has a purpose and its own place. Don't misunderstand - I am not anti sports. If anything, I believe it is our duty as Muslims to incorporate fitness into our lives. If not, we (especially Muslim women ) run the risk of developing severe maladies and physical difficulties.

What I mean to say is that as we assimilate into society as much as our deen will allow, we have to be careful once we reach the gray areas. The main danger is the way it detracts from the time we need to study the deen. Sports and fitness is good but should not be a primary goal. The fitnah of a sports professional - or amateur for that matter is great. I have a few non-Muslim relatives who played in the NFL, so I am somewhat familiar with this.

Look at Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf's situation and this was long before September 11th, I might add: National anthem controversy

"Abdul-Rauf is perhaps best known for the controversy created when he refused to stand for "the Star-Spangled Banner" before games[1], stating that the flag was a "symbol of oppression" and that the United States had a long "history of tyranny". He said that standing to the national anthem would therefore conflict with his Islamic beliefs. On March 12, 1996 the NBA suspended Abdul-Rauf for his refusal to stand, but the suspension lasted only one game. Two days later, the league was able to work out a compromise with him, whereby he would stand during the playing of the national anthem but could close his eyes and look downward. He usually silently recited a Muslim prayer during this time.

In an apparent publicity stunt gone wrong linked to this controversy, four employees of Denver's KBPI were charged with misdemeanor offenses related to entering a Colorado mosque and playing "the Star-Spangled Banner" on a bugle and trumpet, in a provocative response to Abdul-Rauf's refusal to stand for the national anthem.[2]"

The "heroes" of this culture are neither examples, role models, or measures of any kind. So before we high-five each other because we homeschoolers have "made it" by getting the same privileges as our public school cousins, we need to forge an identity that is distinct from the Western identity.