Sometimes even the best intentions get misunderstood when crossing cultural and religious boundaries. I would not have a problem kicking a soccer ball with Jesus' name on it, or a Bible verse, or something like that. Perhaps I should. Would something like that be lowering the holiness of God to a toy? Or would that be a great thing to play with - a constant reminder of keeping God's word in our hearts and minds? For me the jury is still out. I would appreciate some feedback on the issue.
Some other people, however, have already made up their minds. I learned something new today. The Saudi flag contains the inscription of the pillars of Islam, which came from the Koran and contains Allah's name. That means having the Saudi Arabian flag on a soccer ball is blasphemous. Again something new that I learned today. Unfortunately, someone else learned it the hard way. Around 100 people protested in Afghanistan over the US military distributing soccer balls containing the Saudi flag.
Hopefully, the peaceful demonstration will be the end of the issue. Big error on the U.S. part - steps should be made to correct it. A worse error would be violence by some extremist group in retaliation. No ill will was intended; hopefully most see it that way.
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