Virat Kohli hits back at trolls and defends Mohammed Shami saying, “Attacking someone over religion is most pathetic”.
A sea of online trolls had targetted pacer Mohammed Shami on social media after India’s loss to Pakistan in the 2021 T20 World Cup on Sunday, which led to the most vicious online abuse on Mohammed Shami’s religion evoking Virat Kohli, Indian cricketer and the current captain of India’s national men’s cricket team to retort back firmly, “Attacking someone over religion is most pathetic” defending Mohammed Shami.
Backing teammate Shami, Kohli rebuked the communal abuse that was directed at the 31-year-old bowler on his social media accounts after India’s defeat. “Attacking someone over their religion is the most pathetic thing one can do as a human. That is a very sacred and personal thing. People take out their frustration because they have no understanding of what we do,” Kohli said to reporters in Saturday’s pre-match press conference on the eve of the Super 12 encounter against New Zealand.
“We’re playing on the field, we’re not a bunch of spineless people on social media. This has become a source of entertainment for some people which is very sad. All this drama created on the outside is based on people’s frustrations,” Kohli added.
“We stand by by him 200 percent. Our brotherhood in the team cannot be shaken.”
Farhan Akhtar, Sonam Kapoor, Ishaan Khatter, and others hail Virat Kohli’s statement in support of Mohammed Shami.
Kohli’s statement stands out uniquely strong and refreshing at a time when online trolls have taken to Twitter using inflammatory words to raise religious riots.
Within recent years, religiously provoking abusive tweets stirred up troubled waters in India, and through it, most of the celebrities and Bollywood have been accused of maintaining a sanctimonious silence. Thus, Kohli’s words gave India a ray of hope that with him cracking through a wall of religious bigotry, more celebrities would rise up with courage and speak up to unite India and save the nation from bigots and religious intolerance fragmenting the nation further.
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