Updated on
Summary
Nine Christian members of boxing teams from Central African Republic and Cameroon converted to Islam on Tuesday while in Karachi attending a boxing tournament.Six boxers from Central Africa and three from Cameroon were converted to Islam by a well-known cleric, Mufti Mohammad Naeem of Jamia Binoria Karachi at a hotel in the city.The boxers were in town for a boxing tournament.The coach for Central African Republic team, a Muslim, said the boxers decided to convert to the religion after they were impressed by the spirit of Islamic culture and their brotherly attitude.They see the way the Muslim brothers are cooperating with one another, there's no discrimination, said Mohammad Kalambaye.They don't see differences between them, our own brothers in Africa with the ones in Pakistan so, they preferred to join Islam, he said.Mufti Naeem who converted the nine Christians said the boxers' negative preconceptions of the religion changed when they saw how Pakistanis behaved with each other.The morality and good attitude from the members of the Pakistan Boxing Federation played a pivotal role to convert them to Islam. When I asked them why they had accepted Islam, they said: We did not know that Muslims are such good people. In the West, only one side of Muslims have been portrayed, that they are terrorists, said Mufti Mohammad Naeem, who runs Jamia Binoria in Karachi. Boxers from 18 countries, including India and China, took part in the tournament at the sports complex named after Benazir Bhutto. Police and paramilitary troops were positioned on the roofs of nearby houses and on the roads leading to the venue which were barred to public transport.
