There's a bawdy saying in the world of sports that claims "It takes leather balls to play rugby". It takes similar spine to switch religions , especially when trading a Christian-based faith for Islam when you aren't from (or in) a Muslim-majority nation. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. Even in Islamaphobic America, the number of Muslims has more than doubled since 9/11. It's a trend seen around the world, and in the world of sports where a musclebound God Squad (including a few notoriously naughty Neanderthals) ...

Roma's midfielder from Egypt Mohamed Salah reacts during the UEFA Champions League football match AS Roma vs Real Madrid on Frebruary 17, 2016 at the Olympic stadium in Rome. AFP PHOTO / FILIPPO MONTEFORTE FILIPPO MONTEFORTE / AFP

Last week, the Jerusalem Labor Court awarded a f ormer caretaker at the I sraeli Prime Minis ter’s Residence about $43,735, ruling that he suffered verbal and emotional abuse while working for Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara. M rs. Netayanhu has for decades been a lightning rod for harsh criticism, often portrayed as a difficult person whose lavish lifestyle is paid for by unwitting taxpayers. Her sartorial sense is low-hanging fruit for sarcastic commentary, but let's instead scan her behavior and oversize sense of entitlement, and see how they ...

The pack rides during the first stage of the 7th cycling Tour of Oman between Oman Exhibition Center and al-Bustan on February 16, 2016. MOHAMMED MAHJOUB / AFP

In the past few weeks, five tunnel collapses in the Gaza Strip have killed 11 Hamas fighters . Hamas leaders are boasting that the group is working overtime on efforts to penetrate the Israeli border, apparently to stage a kidnapping or a mass-casualty attack on Israel. Yet Hamas’s vast underground transport network is used for more than just attacking Israel. Here are a few key facts about the territory's subterranean world.

This file photo taken on February 6, 2016 shows Leicester City's Algerian midfielder Riyad Mahrez celebrating scoring his team's second goal during the English Premier League football match between Manchester City and Leicester City at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, north west England, on February 6, 2016. Leicester City have taken their place at the summit of the Premier League and in the impish Mahrez, a £400,000 bargain buy from Le Havre, they possess a figure who embodies the league's startling democratisation. Born in Sarcelles, an ethnically diverse northern suburb ...

Shakespeare wrote, "The course of true love never did run smooth." That's especially true for romantics in times of war, or for couples moved by those who are affected by war's fallout. This Valentine's Day, Al Bawaba looks at duos who put their love out there for a greater good. Some use their Big Day to put a high beam on issues larger than their own happiness. Others fight for love despite social and cultural challenges. T hese warm-hearted warriors are winners on love's Middle East battlefields. (Just watch out ...

Reports of racial and religious profiling of Muslims and people of Middle Eastern descent are sharply rising at airports across America, as anti-Islamic sentiment following the terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino triggers a new wave of discrimination. Workers from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) have long been accused of unfairly questioning , searching, and detaining passengers simply for “looking” Muslim, earning their own comic (or tragic?) hashtag #SH!TTSASAYS. Now airline and airport workers and fellow passengers are joining in. Since when has "flying while Arab" become a punishable ...

Kill the winter chill with some decent music. Why sit and shiver when you can jump around to a beat? Turn up a tune to lift your mood. Better still, get on your feet and dance. Non-dancers can go the karaoke route - all the easier when then songs are remakes of ones we already know. So take a scan of these Arab artists who are remaking pop favorites in their own image. From cringe-inducing to incredible, these covers are worth a listen.

The pack rides on the highway during the second stage of the 2016 Tour of Qatar cycling race, starting and finishing at the Qatar University on February 9, 2016. Norway's Alexander Kristoff won a sprint finish ahead of Britain's Marc Cavendish in the second stage of the Tour of Qatar.

In Saudi Arabia, women need male approval before they can leave the house unchaperoned, yet Saudi women are still competing in the Olympics and climbing Mount Everest. In Afghanistan, female athletes are harassed, threatened and abused for performing in front of men who aren’t their husbands, yet women from Afghanistan are still risking their lives to set sprinting records. Here are eight female Muslim athletes shattering stereotypes in the Islamic world.