Where are the Muslims?
Looking over baby names today, I came across Muhammad, which is pretty clearly a Muslim name. I could not think of any baseball players with that name or Abdul or Kareem. I could not think of a single MLB player ever who had a Muslim name or is even Muslim. (I could easliy be missing someone. Maybe the whitest* guy in baseball, Khalil Greene?) Where are they?
I mean there are dozens of NFL players named Az-Hakim and there is a famous NBA player named Abdul-Jabar among many others. Hell, there's even Ramzi Abid playing in the NHL (although he seems to be ethnically Arab rather than an African-American convert or son of converts as most Muslims in the NBA and NFL). Is this just a function of the dearth of African-Americans in baseball, especially those from big cities?
Running through some African-American players I can think of off the top of my head:
Torii, Arkansas
Jacque, San Diego
Shannon, Cincinnati
Carsten C, Vallejo, CA
Coco, LA
Dontrell, Oakland
Dmitri, Mississippi
Rickie, Daytona, FL
Maybe dearth from northern and eastern big cities.
Also interesting that I can get by with using their first names.
I don't know what I'm getting at here, but if anyone can think of any Muslims in MLB or AAA, I'd just be real curious.
BTW, Who Is Mike Jones?
* I mean whitest as in palest, I have no knowledge of his ancestry, but I really thought he would be black with that name.
I mean there are dozens of NFL players named Az-Hakim and there is a famous NBA player named Abdul-Jabar among many others. Hell, there's even Ramzi Abid playing in the NHL (although he seems to be ethnically Arab rather than an African-American convert or son of converts as most Muslims in the NBA and NFL). Is this just a function of the dearth of African-Americans in baseball, especially those from big cities?
Running through some African-American players I can think of off the top of my head:
Torii, Arkansas
Jacque, San Diego
Shannon, Cincinnati
Carsten C, Vallejo, CA
Coco, LA
Dontrell, Oakland
Dmitri, Mississippi
Rickie, Daytona, FL
Maybe dearth from northern and eastern big cities.
Also interesting that I can get by with using their first names.
I don't know what I'm getting at here, but if anyone can think of any Muslims in MLB or AAA, I'd just be real curious.
BTW, Who Is Mike Jones?
* I mean whitest as in palest, I have no knowledge of his ancestry, but I really thought he would be black with that name.
2 Comments:
I remember reading in ESPN the Mag that Khalil Green is actually a person of the Baha'i faith. I don't know much about it, but you can read about it on Wikipedia (not affiliated with Wiki Gonzalez):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahai
PS - Nice to have you back
Karim Garcia. Of course, he's Mexican, not black. First name is actually Gustavo.
(got here from SBG's mention, btw).
--brianS
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