On Wednesday, the Moroccan football players offered ‘Sajdah Al Shukr’ which means prostration of gratitude on the ground after France defeated them in a World Cup 2022 semi-final match. The image of their prayer went viral over the internet.
“Morocco’s players pray and thank their travelling fans for their support after losing to France. This Morocco team may have not won the World Cup, but they won our hearts,” tweeted ESPN FC sharing the pictures of players kneeling to Allah on the ground.
This Morocco team may have not won the World Cup, but they won our hearts ❤️🇲🇦 pic.twitter.com/0xTkngqHZJ
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) December 14, 2022
The Moroccan players qualified for the World Cup semi-finals for the first time in history after they defeated Portugal, in the process, becoming the first Arab nation and first African nation to reach the last 4 of a World cup.
Earlier, after the team qualified for the World Cup quarter-finals following a win over Spain, the team members were seen asking their fans and people in general to embrace Islam. According to the reports, two players, Zakaria Aboukhal and Abdelhamid Sabiri, returned to their hotel after the match against Spain and broadcasted a live stream in which they invited the viewers to embrace Islam.
“Alhamdulillah. We have reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup and this has happened for the first time in history. This is all because of Allah. Allah-hu-Akhbar. Join us. Join us. Join Islam. Come. Come to the peace,” the players could be heard saying in the video.
The duo also posted their photographs on Instagram later in which they raised their index fingers which signifies ‘oneness in God’ in Islam. Zakaria Aboukhal and Abdelhamid Sabiri also captioned the images they posted online and wrote, “Allah hu Akbar,” and “Freedom,” respectively.
World Cup of religion
Ahead of the FIFA World Cup matches, the host country Qatar had made all the arrangements to introduce Islam to the new non-Muslim visitors to the country. It had installed numerous digital boards at tourist destinations about the Prophet Muhammad’s teachings in more than 30 different languages. Also, books about Islam and Prophet’s teachings were distributed to the visitors.
Further, at the Katara Cultural Village Mosque in Doha, multilingual male and female preachers were chosen to convey Islam’s faith and ‘tolerance’ to tourists. Workers and preachers from the Qatar Guest Centre were posted at the mosque’s entry to greet visitors and answer questions about the mosque. Hadiths and Prophet Muhammad’s statements, behaviors, or habits were inscribed on the roads to attract non-Muslim tourists.
It was also reported that around 558 people visiting Qatar for the FIFA World Cup were allegedly converted to Islam. Following this, even several journalists in the Arab world criticized the country’s act of promoting Islam to World Cup visitors.
Liberal Egyptian journalist Khaled Montasser stated that the willingness to utilize the World Cup in this way indicated a sense of inferiority that leads Muslims to try to sell their faith to the public like cheap items at the market, which is narrow-minded and an insult to Islam itself.
The journalists asserted that the World Cup is not designed for the propagation of Islam and that the best way to develop the Islamic country is to engage in culture, science, industry, and technology rather than recruiting a large number of new Muslims.
Further, Kuwaiti journalist Muhammad Al-Rumaihi contended that Islam deserves far more recognition and respect than that, while ‘Oraib Al-Rantawi, a Jordanian journalist and political commentator wondered how Muslims would react if efforts were made to convert Muslims to Christianity during a World Cup in a non-Muslim country.
Reports mention that Dr. Zakir Naik, an extremist Islamic preacher who is wanted in India, and Egyptian preacher Omar Abdelkafy had reached the capital Doha at the invitation of the Qatari regime, to engage in the propagation of Islam among World Cup attendees.
