As the BYU men’s basketball team prepares for the Big 12 tournament next week, three members of the team who are Muslim are preparing to observe Ramadan, the Islamic holy month when most Muslims fast daily, going without food and water from sunrise to sunset.
The trio of players are all post players — Aly Khalifa, Fousseyni Traore and Atiki Ally Atiki — and Ramadan begins on the evening of Sunday, March 10, and continues until April 9.
Khalifa, who is from Alexandria, Egypt, told the Deseret News last month that he plans to take part in the fast and will stop eating food and drinking water at approximately 6 a.m. each day during Ramadan, although it could be tricky during the Big 12 tournament.
“So if the tournament games are in the middle of the day, that is going to be pretty tough,” said Khalifa. “But I want to do it. I told [BYU head athletic trainer Rob Ramos] and others that I am doing it. I feel like I have the power in me to play games while fasting.”
Traore, of Bamako, Mali, and Atiki, of Mwanza, Tanzania, are not planning on fasting, but will observe the holy month in other ways.
Read the entire article in the Deseret News.
