{"id":14021,"date":"2014-06-27T13:38:26","date_gmt":"2014-06-27T18:38:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/ramadan-a-dilemma-for-some-world-cup-players\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:21:22","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:21:22","slug":"ramadan-a-dilemma-for-some-world-cup-players","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2014\/06\/27\/ramadan-a-dilemma-for-some-world-cup-players\/","title":{"rendered":"Ramadan a dilemma for some World Cup players"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Muslim<\/a>
Germany\u2019s Mesut Ozil (l.), France\u2019s Karim Benzema (c.) and Switzerland\u2019s Xherdan Shaqiri (r.). Credits: Ralph Orlowski\/Reuters\/Corbis, Marius Becker\/dpa\/Corbis, Ruben Sprich\/Reuters\/Corbis<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n\n

Ramadan, which begins this weekend, is widely observed by Muslims<\/a> around the world with fasting from sunrise until sundown. That creates a potential dilemma<\/a> for Muslim players at the World Cup whose teams have advanced to the knockout stage of the tournament, as the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and the World Cup overlap for the first time since 1986<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Although the exact religious makeup of the teams\u2019 rosters is unclear, Muslims comprise 11% of the collective population of the 16 countries that advanced out of the tournament\u2019s group stage, according to 2010 data from the Pew Research Center\u2019s Global Religious Landscape<\/a> report. Several prominent players on teams that are still alive \u2013 including Germany\u2019s Mesut Ozil, France\u2019s Karim Benzema and Switzerland\u2019s Xherdan Shaqiri \u2013 are practicing Muslims. The national team of Algeria, a country comprised of 98% Muslims, advanced on a goal by Islam Slimani and will face Germany on Monday.<\/p>\n\n

While some Muslim athletes choose to fast<\/a> while competing, others see room for interpretation<\/a> in the Quran, which instructs \u201cwhosoever of you is present, let him fast the month, and whosoever of you is sick or on a journey, a number of other days.\u201d Some Islamic leaders endorse fasting at a later date, especially if it is \u201ca once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for an athlete,\u201d a London-based imam told the soccer website Goal.com<\/a> in 2011. The High Egyptian Islamic Council even issued a fatwa before the 2012 London Olympics<\/a>, allowing athletes to eat and drink during Ramadan.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

Taken as a whole, the countries that have advanced past the group stage are overwhelmingly Christian. Along with the 11% that is Muslim, the combined population of those nations is 74% Christian and 12% religiously unaffiliated (and 1% or less Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist or something else), according to our 2010 report.<\/p>\n\n

Algeria and Nigeria are the only countries still alive at the World Cup that are outside of Europe and the Americas, both regions with large Christian majorities<\/a>. Algeria is the only one with a Muslim majority, while Nigeria has roughly equal numbers of Christians and Muslims.<\/p>\n\n

All of the World Cup\u2019s previous winners<\/a> are Christian-majority nations.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Muslims comprise 11% of the collective population of the 16 countries that advanced out of the tournament\u2019s group 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