GELSENKIRCHEN, Germany: A top official with a German Muslim group says he sees no problem with a decades-old anthem at Bundesliga club Schalke that mentions the Prophet Mohamed.
Schalke has asked a scholar of Islam to look into complaints sent to the club by Muslims angered by what they see as the lampooning of the Prophet Mohamed in a verse in the club s decades-old anthem.
The verse – which also caused short-lived protests in 1997 – refers to the Prophet Mohamed, who it says knew nothing about football but picked the colors blue and white, the Schalke colors.
From our point of view, the song is neither blasphemy, nor does it constitute mockery of the prophet, Aiman Mazyek, the general secretary of Germany s Central Council of Muslims, said Wednesday on N24 television, arguing that the anthem could stay the way it is.
The prophet lived before the invention of football, Mazyek noted, adding that it was best to take it with humor.
Mazyek suggested that the background to the flap could be the fatal July 1 stabbing in a German courtroom of an Egyptian woman, Marwa Al-Sherbini, which caused outrage in Egypt and beyond.
Some Muslims nerves are frayed – and then there are hotheads who try to exploit this story, he said.
The club said it has received hundreds of e-mails and letters of complaint and has contacted police and state security. -AP
