In Denmark, Imams and Priests Square Off in a Friendly Soccer Match
In early June, in Denmark, priests and imams challenged each other over a game of soccer. But besides sports and fun, this day had another, more serious purpose to it – to defy the media picture and show that Danes are perfectly able to coexist despite cultural and religious differences.
It was a Saturday mid-afternoon and the sun’s heat warmed the soccer fields in one of Copenhagen’s sport arenas. Families and friends across gender, age, religious and ethnic divides had come together and placed themselves on the sidelines, ready to act as cheering squads. From the stands, youngsters yelled “imaaams,” while other spectators clapped, rooted and drummed for the sweaty players out on the field.
If the fans were typical, the teams were anything but. On both sides of the field were religious leaders, wearing soccer shoes and ready to play. On one side were Danish priests in blue jerseys, and on the other side Danish imams in red. Both had put aside their religious uniforms and holy books for a while to focus on one thing – the ball. The match was arranged by the organization, One Goal, One Society, recently founded by Nora Omari and Mikkel Lind. Beyond soccer, fun and heat, these two had something more serious on the agenda.
A statement from them on Facebook read:
Sadly, we live in a society in which religion is seen as something that contributes to creating hate between people. Many believe Christians and Muslims aren’t able to agree with each other, and we wish to break with these many prejudices … Soccer has in many cases proved to work as something that unites different peoples and religions. With the world’s most popular sport, people are gathered from north, south, east and west, in peaceful harmony. This will with certainty happen here as well.
Read more: https://globalvoices.org/2016/06/23/in-denmark-imams-and-priests-square-off-in-a-friendly-soccer-match/
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