Australia: Meet NBL’s First-Ever Muslim Coach Who Seeks to Be A Role Model
“I know I'm impacting someone's life and the reason why I'm doing what I'm doing is to be able to be that role model that I was looking for growing up,” he was quoted as saying by SBS News.
He has taken charge of back-to-back NBL champions Sydney Kings and the team is set to hold their first game of the season later on Saturday.
Abdelfattah says he is “willing and open” to help others.
“It was always easier when you can relate to someone and there were no Muslims, no Palestinians I could reach out to via social media, to say, hey can you help me get in? Now, InshaAllah I can be that for others. I'm willing and open - just to be available, to talk to somebody if it's a message, if it's a phone call.”
Before joining the team in Sydney he won the NBA G-league with Rio Grande Valley Vipers.
He observes fasting every Monday and Thursday, refraining from food or water from dawn until dusk. He also organizes his life around his five daily prayers. He says the discipline embedded in Islam influences his coaching - both deliberately and spontaneously.
“I'm here, I'm fasting, I'm not thinking about food or water, it's just the mentality of being mentally strong and thats what I try to preach to these guys. Whatever you believe in, you've got to wake up every morning believing in something, whatever you have faith in, whether it's your work ethic, your family, your friends, your religion, for me it's my religion and I know what my religion does for my work, for my job.”
Source: Agencies
