Muslim Athlete Kyrie Irving Forced to Apologize After Intimidation, Critics Say
Muslim African American basketball player Kyrie Irving has been suspended from five games without pay for his post on twitter. The seven time all-star NBA player tweeted a link of a 2018 book and movie that is allegedly full of antisemitic portrayals regarding the minority Jewish community.
The documentary titled “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,” which allegedly claims that Jews control the media and that millions of Jews did not die during the Holocaust.
The American Giant company Nike also suspended its relation with Kyrie Iriving in a statement emailed to CNN on Friday.
“At Nike, we believe there is no place for hate speech and we condemn any form of antisemitism,” the statement says. “To that end, we’ve made the decision to suspend our relationship with Kyrie Irving effective immediately and will no longer launch the Kyrie 8. We are deeply saddened and disappointed by the situation and its impact on everyone.”
The Nets also suspended Irving Thursday after he initially refused to pull down his reshare on his twitter account.
When asked if there was any consideration of releasing Irving from the team, Nets general manager Sean Marks told reporters, “No. Not at this particular time.”
“There is going to be some remedial steps and measures that have been put in place for him to obviously seek some counseling … from dealing with some anti-hate and some Jewish leaders within our community,” Marks said. “He’s going to have to sit down with them, he’s going to have to sit down with the organization after this, and we’ll evaluate and see if this is the right opportunity to bring him back.”
The Brooklyn Nets delivered Irving a six item action list that he must complete to return to the team, Nets Insider Shams Charania said. These include:
– Apologize/condemn the movie
– $500K donation to anti-hate causes
– Sensitivity training
– Antisemitic training
– Meet with Anti-Defamation League and Jewish leaders
– Meet with Joe Tsai to demonstrate understanding
The NBA star did later apologize on his Instagram account stating `To All Jewish families and Communities that are hurt and affected from my post, I am deeply sorry to have caused you pain, and I apologize,” Irving wrote. “I initially reacted out of emotion to being unjustly labeled Anti-Semitic, instead of focusing on the healing process of my Jewish Brothers and Sisters that were hurt from the hateful remarks made in the Documentary.
“I had no intentions to disrespect any Jewish cultural history regarding the Holocaust or perpetuate any hate. I am learning from this unfortunate event and hope we can find understanding between us all,” he said.
Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf said on Instagram that “Kyrie should issue the same demands for them to meet from the position of being Muslim, Black and a Native American. They are trying to make an example out of him for us and we should not fall for these intimidation tactics that are aimed to discourage discussion around critical issues and lend our support to him.”
Others were also quick to point out the discrepancy within the media outlets, and their constant shadowing the good side of certain public figures by heavily endorsing their ‘slips’.
In Kyrie’s case, some social media denizens said the media had ignored his many contributions through the years. Archived reports revealed how Kyrie Iriving once gave Pakistanis access to clean water with a new solar water center, or how he previously committed to donating $1.5 million to help cover the salaries of the WNBA players sitting out during the pandemic.
He even donated $323,000 to combat food insecurity during the pandemic, as well as donating 200,000 Beyond Burgers to the NYC Food Bank.
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