When Cricket and Religion Don't Gel

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 25 July 2023 Young Pakistan star cricketer, Ayesha Naseem, retired from international cricket citing religious reasons for her decision, saying she wants to live her life "according to Islam."The girl is just 18-yr-old. A couple of years ago, Bollywood actor Zaira Wasim also retired at 18. The Dangal fame girl also cited the desire to follow her religious belief. While there's nothing wrong if one chooses to serve one's religion, giving up a promising career for the sake of one's faith is fanaticism. Ayesha Naseem and Zaira Wasim ------ Mind you, here I'm not condemning Muslim youngsters for this bizarre religious mindset. The same proclivity is quite rampant in Jainism as well. In Jainism, even children are initiated into the austerities of religion and young successful professionals become monks. This religious idiocy (I won't call it a phenomenon because it's not natural) was studied and analysed by Dullen and Morgan in 1989. They concluded that young people in a religious set up, would often feel 'erroneously puffed up' and think that it was the sole objective of human life. All religions have a common peculiarity. They don't offer alternative paths. The religious emphasis and assertion that it's the only way is quite appealing and exciting to the impressionable minds. That doesn't mean, 'mature' people are not affected by it. They too get influenced, but the youngsters get egoistically as well as egotistically impacted by the overwhelmingly negative influence of a religion. To the unfortunate people like Ayesha Naseem, Zaira Wasim and scores of ill-fated child monks in Jainism, religion is a proverbial ego-booster or massager. That's why, Scandinavian countries don't expose youngsters to religion before the age of 21. You can jolly well study religion at Uppsala University in Sweden or at Copenhagen University, Denmark, but only after a certain level of maturity. Otherwise also, religion is basically for those whose brains are still not fully developed- most of the humans in the world are living happily with ill-developed brains and they've no knowledge of it- and who love to wallow in its muck and miasma. When exposed to young minds, religion can churn out more Ayesha Naseems. ---- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/cricket-religion-ayesha-zaira/d/130296 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism