Germany: Islam scholar concludes club anthem doesn't insult Mohammed

Germany: Islam scholar concludes club anthem doesn't insult Mohammed


A scholar of Islam asked by Schalke to assess a club anthem that mentions the Prophet Muhammad has concluded that the decades-old song is not insulting.


The Bundesliga club commissioned the study by Bulent Ucar, a professor at the University of Osnabrueck, following complaints by Muslims angered by what they saw as lampooning of the prophet in a verse of the anthem, whose current wording dates back to the 1960s.


The verse - which also caused short-lived protests in 1997 - says the prophet knew nothing about football but picked the colours blue and white, the Schalke colours.


In his report, posted on Schalke's website Thursday, Ucar said that "the assertion is objectively correct, because there simply was no football in the seventh century," when the prophet lived.


"Besides, a good deal of humourlessness goes into interpreting this text as a disparagement of the prophet and a hate campaign against him," wrote Ucar, himself a Muslim. "It contains no substance that is in any way slanderous."


Ucar added that there was no suggestion that the author of the current text - Hans J. Koenig, a Cologne-based musician who died in 1992 - was "in any way critical of, still less hostile toward Islam."


Koenig's text was inspired by an older folk song that says the prophet "understands a lot about colors."


Already this week, the general secretary of Germany's Central Council of Muslims has said he sees no problem with the Schalke anthem, a playful tribute to the club titled "Blue and White - How I Love You."


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Source: Canadian Press (English)


See also: Germany: Muslims upset at football club song

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