Arsenal midfielder, Mesut Ozil has called on Muslim faithful to respond to the growing Islamophobia and ‘Antiislamismus’ in Europe with kindness.
‘Antiislamismus’ is a German word for anti-Islam, anti-Muslim and criticism of Islam, Muslim News checks reveal.
Ozil made this call on Friday across all his verified social media accounts which have millions of Muslims and non-Muslim followers.
The 32-year-old player is among the few Muslim footballers that use the networking sites particularly on Fridays to preach the beauty and universality of Islamic message to their fans.
On Friday (November 20), the German World Cup winner of Turkish origin posted the picture of himself, spreading his hands in prayers before Allah.
The picture which now has 230k, 159k, 20k likes on his verified Instagram, Facebook, Twitter handles respectively, less than 30mins after posting, was accompanied with the verse of the Noble Quran 41:34 which encapsulated the message of his admonition this week.
In the verse quoted, Allah says; “Good and evil cannot be equal. Respond ˹to evil˺ with what is best, then the one you are in a feud with will be like a close friend.”
Ozil, who made the top 5 Muslim News Global Personalities of the year 2019, believes that kindness is the panacea to the growing Islamophobia and anti-Islam activities in Europe and the rest of the world.
He said, “Unfortunately, Islamophobia and Antiislamismus is growing in Europe and in other parts of the world with the media playing a big role in that.
“My personal answer to that: We should respond to Islamophobia and Antiislamismus in a way that will not reinforce it, but rather disarm and silence it with kindness,” he added.
He wished all his fans “Jumma Mubarak” in Arabic and #hayirlicumalar (have a nice Friday) in Turkish.
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