Only a few weeks before their debut tournament this past spring, members of the nation's only known all-Muslim AAU basketball team were still grappling with an important decision.

Did they want to select a team name that would make it easier to blend in on the AAU circuit or one that would highlight the differences between themselves and their opponents?

The Motor City Muslims logo (via Ali Altimimy) More

A brainstorming session among the players produced some tolerable yet unimaginative possibilities, from the Ballers, to the Warriors, to the Mustangs. Coach Clarence Archibald offered a more daring alternative when he suggested the team show pride in its faith and culture by opting for a name featuring either the word "Muslim" or "Islam."

"Some of them were a little hesitant, but I pushed pretty hard," Archibald said. "We all know Islam often is unfortunately portrayed in a negative way in the media. I wanted to be sure we were easily identifiable as an all-Muslim team because it gave us an opportunity to change people's mindsets by showing them we're as American as home runs and apple pie."

In an era when young Muslim Americans sometimes try to avoid detection by removing any outward signs of Islam in public and by going by names like "Mo" instead of "Mohammed," Archibald's players boldly chose to wear their identities across their chests. They named their team the Motor City Muslims and emblazoned a custom-made logo on the front of their jerseys featuring a basketball player clad in a traditional Islamic robe and turban.

Such an unconventional choice made it difficult for the Motor City Muslims to keep a low profile at the tournaments they attended in Michigan this year.

Strangers often gawked or whispered when the team prayed together between games or broke its huddles by shouting in unison "bismillāh," the Arabic word for "in the name of God." Other teams also tended not to take the Motor City Muslims as seriously as they would have opponents of a different culture or skin tone.

"Some teams looked at us and thought, 'Oh this is an easy win. What are they even doing here?'" said starting point guard Zeeshan Tariq, a rising sophomore at Harrison High School. "When I'd turn around during warmups, they'd just be fooling around on the side like they didn't even need to warm up to beat us because it would be such an easy win."

Though the Motor City Muslims didn't have any surefire Division I college prospects or any players taller than 6-foot-3, opponents quickly learned to overlook them at their own risk. The team won a handful of games in the 16-and-under tournaments it entered the past few months before taking the July live period off while fasting during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

The formation of an all-Muslim 16-and-under AAU basketball team in the Detroit suburbs was the brainchild of a man not far removed from his own playing days.

Ali Altimimy, the 26-year-old youth director at the Muslim Unity Center in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., is a former high school and community college basketball player whose love for hoops is only exceeded by his passion for his religion. He is skeptical that his own basketball career would have blossomed had he not challenged himself by playing AAU ball, so he wanted to give the same chance to some of the Unity Center's best young recreational players.

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