 "Jofra Archer and other England cricketers slam Taslima Nasreen for her 'ISIS' tweet on Moeen Ali")
The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 is all set to begin on 9 April. However, an off-field controversy related to the much-awaited tournament has hit the headlines. It all started with Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen’s controversial remarks against England all-rounder Moeen Ali, who will be playing for Chennai Super Kings in the 14th edition of IPL. On 5 April, Taslima took a dig at the cricketer and said that he would have joined the global terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) if he wasn’t playing cricket. Her tweet (now deleted) reads, “If Moeen Ali were not stuck with cricket, he would have gone to Syria to join ISIS”. Taslima’s tweet clearly didn’t go down well with England cricketers who slammed the author for her remarks. England star pacer Jofra Archer tweeted, “Are you okay? I don’t think you’re okay”.
Are you okay ? I don’t think you’re okay https://t.co/rmiFHhDXiO
— Jofra Archer (@JofraArcher) April 6, 2021
Cricketers Saqib Mahmood and Sam Billings also came out in support of Moeen.
Please everyone report taslimas account! Disgusting!
— Sam Billings (@sambillings) April 6, 2021
After receiving backlash, Taslima tweeted again and stated that her previous post was just “sarcasm.”
Haters know very well that my Moeen Ali tweet was sarcastic. But they made that an issue to humiliate me because I try to secularize Muslim society & I oppose Islamic fanaticism. One of the greatest tragedies of humankind is pro-women leftists support anti-women Islamists.
— taslima nasreen (@taslimanasreen) April 6, 2021
Jofra replied to this post as well and said, “Sarcastic? No one is laughing, not even yourself, the least you can do is delete the tweet”.
Sarcastic ? No one is laughing , not even yourself , the least you can do is delete the tweet https://t.co/Dl7lWdvSd4
— Jofra Archer (@JofraArcher) April 6, 2021
Moeen has played 61 Test matches for England till now and has scored 2,831 runs including five centuries. He has 1,849 runs in 109 ODI matches. As a bowler, he has taken 189 and 86 wickets in Tests and ODIs, respectively. Ahead of IPL 2021, the all-rounder was bought for a whopping Rs 7 crore.
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