German football song irks Muslims

An anthem sung by fans of the German football club FC Schalke 04 has drawn protests from Muslims because of its reference to the Prophet Muhammad.

The Gelsenkirchen club, which plays in Germany’s top league, the Bundesliga, has asked an Islam expert to consider whether the song might be insulting.

The third verse contains the words: “Muhammad was a prophet who understood nothing about football”.

“But of all the lovely colours he chose [Schalke’s] blue and white,” it goes.

The club has received hundreds of e-mails from angry Muslims recently, since Turkish media carried reports about the song.

Police in Gelsenkirchen, in the industrial Ruhr region of western Germany, say they are taking the Muslim complaints very seriously.

The head of Germany’s Central Council of Muslims, Aiman Mazyek, said his council would not call for a ban on the anthem, but would like “an explanation of its background”.

Oh sure, it’s easy enough for Muslims to burn Christians alive in the streets of Pakistan for even the most minor perceived slight against Islam, but trying to intimidate hardcore German Bundesliga fans?

/well, good luck with that