‘I am hurt and shocked’, Moeen Ali’s father Munir Ali said after Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen made a vile remark against England all-rounder Moeen Ali on Twitter.
She had tweeted that Moeen would have joined ISIS had he not picked cricket as a profession. This remark of Nasreen allegedly came after Moeen Ali reportedly refused to sport an alcohol brand on his Chennai Super Kings jersey.
The reports were later denied by the IPL franchise. Since then, Moeen Ali’s teammates have come out in support and Nasreen has been called out for her outrageous remark. Moeen Ali’s England teammate Jofra Archer too came down heavily on Nasreen after she defended her previous tweet about Ali. The likes of Sam Billings and Saqib Mahmood
Nasreen later defended her post, saying it was “sarcastic” in nature.
“Haters know very well that my Moeen Ali tweet was sarcastic. But they made that an issue to humiliate me because I try to secularize Muslim society & I oppose Islamic fanaticism,” she tweeted.
Munir Ali, speaking to The Indian Express, hit out at the Bangladeshi writer, saying her post was an “Islamaphobic statement”.
“In her ‘clarifying’ tweet, where she described her original remark as sarcasm, she also says she stands against fundamentalism. If she looks into a mirror, she will know what she tweeted is what is fundamentalist – a vicious stereotype against a Muslim person, a clearly Islamophobic statement. Someone who doesn’t have self-respect and respect for others can only stoop to this level.” Munir was quoted saying.
“Truth be told, I am really angry, but I know I would be playing into the hands of people like her if I let my rage get out of control. If I get to meet her someday, I will tell her what I really think of her on her face. For now, I would ask her to pick a dictionary and see the meaning of sarcasm.
“It’s not what she thinks it is. It’s not spewing vile poisonous stuff against someone you don’t even know and then retracting it by saying it was sarcasm. Of all the people to pick on for her agenda, I can’t believe she has chosen my son. Everyone in the cricketing world knows the person he is,” he added.
The 2019 ODI World Cup winner was signed up by Chennai Super Kings for INR 7 Cr in the mini IPL auction is currently in Mumbai with the CSK squad.
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