User:Aaditjaveri/Islam in Germany

In Sports[edit]
In 2018, Germany faced controversy regarding its National Soccer Team and their Muslim players. This began when Mesut Ozil quit the German National team citing racism and unfair treatment as his reasoning. The 29 year old star soccer player posted a series of statements on twitter in which he explains how he has been mistreated by the German federation, its president, the German soccer fans, and the German news outlets, claiming that there was a double standard for him being a Muslim-German with Turkish roots. The double standard he believes exists is that when the National team wins, he is considered a German, but when they lose, he is an immigrant. Despite being an integral part of Germany's World Cup-winning team in 2014, Ozil believes the success he has achieved with the National Team has been forgotten as the team has momentarily lost its winning ways. Despite being born in Germany, he was no longer seen as a German. Despite millions of Turkish-Germans residing in Germany now, and even more Muslim-Germans, Mesut Ozil's situation highlighted a major problem of Islamophobia in Germany. Mesut Ozil's experience was not an isolated instance as teammate Ilkay Gundogan also faced discrimination being a Turkish-German team member. However, despite this messy divorce, Mesut Ozil claims he still supports the German national team after leaving them. Nevertheless, it was an important step for Germany to face the reality of how many of its citizens feel towards Muslim-Germans even nowadays.