Few high-school athletes have ever played their sport in a different country. Fewer still have played through a religious organization. Whitman tennis player, junior Nadeem Kassam has done both. Last summer, Kassam played in the first ever Golden Jubilee Games held in Kenya. The games celebrated the 50th year of the present Aga Khan, Shah Karīm al-Hussaynī of the Ismaili Muslim religion.
The Golden Jubilee games were created by the Aga Khan, the 49th hereditary spiritual leader of the Ismaili Muslims, in order to find a better way to connect with younger generations.
“He did a bunch of speeches around the world in many different locations, but likely had a hard time connecting with the younger people…because we’re not as receptive to religion,” said Kassam.
In order to inspire youths to deepen their connection, the Aga Khan created a religious-based Olympics, having try-outs in roughly 25 different countries from around the world including Uzbekistan. The Jubilee games included badminton, squash, track and field, volleyball, and, of course, tennis.
“It wasn’t all sports. It was also cultural based. It was an opportunity for the youth, who aren’t so religious like myself, to at least get a feel of how you can interact with youths of the same religion,” said Kassam.
The Aga Khan created the event in Kenya, because the Ismaili culture is African based. Additionally, the spiritual leader hoped to connect the games with his lifelong charity work in building schools and hospitals. The location proved challenging to Kassam, who was forced to run around in high altitudes on a dirt tennis court, which was suppose to feel like clay.
Safety was another matter. One of Kassam’s team-mates was car-jacked. Their driver was also car-jacked and thrown into the back of his vehicle; he escaped just before the car-jackers crashed the vehicle.
“If they had not thrown him out, he would have died[….] The government is so corrupt. There’s lots of looting and stealing. […] Aggression is [easily used] without being punished. I mean, it’s a little bit scary, but that’s part of the risk that obviously the committee had in setting it up in Kenya,” said Kassam.
Despite the risks involved (which only included a few incidents), Kassam lost a close singles final to a Brown graduate who would later move on to be a professional tennis player. He received the gold medal in mixed doubles, and the silver in doubles and singles respectively.
Looking back, Kassam said, “It was a really, really amazing experience, and even though I’m still not very religious, it certainly was a stepping stone of what I want to do and be when I grow up later. I still think there’s a big misunderstanding between certain sects of Islam and obviously there’s a negative interpretation of people that are Muslim especially because of the recent terrorist attacks, but ignorance is something you can’t really control outside of your own head.”
Faith and the “Fighting Squirrels”
In regard to the change of mascot from the Whitman ‘Missionaries’ to the Whitman ‘Fighting Squirrels’ on the men’s tennis team, Kassam said it had nothing to do with his religion.
“When we were in this discourse about whether we wanted to be the fighting squirrels or not, we were thinking, ‘Why fighting squirrels? Is there meaning in being a fighting squirrel?’ And as we were having this discussion a squirrel from the top branches of a tree fell down and smacked onto our court […]The entire team was silent and looking at the squirrel, which was lying down on the ground for roughly five minutes. Then, it just got up and limped away, ran through the fence, and found a place in the tree. It likely died, but just the amount of energy and the amount of determination that that squirrel had to continue living and to get off the court and keep moving to stay alive: that is completely analogous to what we want to be. When we’re down and we’re on the ground and we’re losing so badly, we want to have the courage and the dedication and the passion to get up and keep our feet moving […] So then we were like, ‘We have to be the squirrels! This is God telling us we have to be the squirrels.”