Islamist Extremist Presence at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022
Author: EMAN Staff
International media has levelled criticism at Qatar for hosting the 2022 World Cup for various reasons, none of which, however, include the attendance of Islamist hate preachers – a topic that has recently come to light following confirmed reports that Zakir Naik, an Indian Islamist hate preacher will be attending the international sporting tournament to give religious sermons and lectures.
Zakir Naik is amongst dozens of Islamist hate preachers that have been profiled on EMAN’s website, due to his extremist rhetoric, and the glorification of Islamist religious militancy. His full profile can be viewed here on EMAN’s database. Naik’s articulate and charismatic sermons and lectures to international audiences online and in-person have boosted his social media popularity and online presence. He has approximately 23M followers on Facebook and 3.3M YouTube subscribers.
Background
Zakir Abdul Karim Naik is an Indian Islamic televangelist and preacher. A medical doctor by profession, Naik’s website lists him as an international orator on Islam and comparative religion. He is currently an alleged criminal absconder on charges related to
funding terror activities, hate speech, inciting communal hatred, and money laundering. He fled from India in 2016 and cuirrently faces multiple charges in addition to being included on a list of most-wanted fugitives. His incitement charges include his role in influencing the 2016 Dhaka attackers in Bangladesh to carry out their terrorist attacks.
In addition to being faced with charges of hate speech, he is also wanted in India on accusations related to money laundering, specifically acquiring $28 million of criminal assets to purchase property in India and finance religious lectures and sermons where he disseminated his provocative speeches. He is currently residing in Malaysia, which offered him permanent residency in 2017. Malaysian authorities, however, have also banned his religious sermons after he began spreading hateful and divisive rhetoric aimed at Malaysia’s non-Muslim Chinese and Hindu minorities. He is the founder of the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) – which was outlawed in March 2022 for five years by the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs.
Naik also launched the Peace TV channel in English in 2006 – the largest watched religious satellite TV channel in the world as of 2016, with over 200 million viewers. Since the launch of the English Channel, Naik launched the Peace TV in Urdu, Bangla, and Chinese in 2009, 2011, and 2015 respectively. In May 2020, Peace TV and Peace TV Urdu were both fined £300,000 by the UK’s media regulator for broadcasting sermons containing hate speech and incitement. The UK’s Commission for Countering Extremism (CCE), which was launched in 2018 following the 2017 London Bridge terrorist attacks cited PeaceTV as an example of Islamist extremism, but not sufficient to be labelled as a crime under current UK law.
EMAN has been closely monitoring Naik’s social media presence and the religious activities he has undertaken. Naik’s charismatic command of multiple languages, including English, Urdu, Hindi, Marathi, and some Arabic, including his style of memorising the Quran, Hadith literature, and the holy books of other religions in various languages, and his related missionary activity, have made him extremely popular on a global scale. Additionally, he is believed to have delivered over 4,000 lectures and participated in thousands of religious debates around the world. Naik’s ability to deliver messages eloquently, compounded by his background in religious – albeit puritanical, dogmatic and distorted – knowledge have made him an influential public figure.
Zakir Naik’s most infamous extremist remarks include statements that Western societies sell their daughters in the name of liberalism, art and culture while Muslim women are respected due to the hijab – despite many Muslim women not wearing the hjiab. In 2010 Naik referred to Americans as “pigs” due to their consumption of pork, and further added that most people in America consume pork and act like pigs after dance parties - allowing other people to sleep with their wives just like pigs do. More recently in 2021, Naik stated in an YouTube clip that “good non-Muslims” will still be going to hell.
Arrival of Zaker Naik to Qatar before the kick-off of the FIFA World Cup 2022
Other extremists at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022
Naik’s presence at the World Cup in Qatar is compounded by other reports that additional Islamist extremists will be present at the tournament, including Omar Abdelkafy who met and welcomed Naik the day before the opening game. Abdelkafy, whose full profile can be viewed here on EMAN’s extremist database is an anti-Shia sectarian hate preacher. His previous extremist rhetoric included comments made in July 2018 where Abdelkafy wrote a post on Facebook titled “لماذا كان الشيعة اخطر من اليهود” [Why were the Shias more dangerous than Jews]. Abdelkafy calls out Shia Muslims – naming them the Shia hypocrites – as the ultimate adversary while referencing some Quran passages. He further attacks other religious groups by comparing Shia Muslims to Christians and Jews by stating: “If we look into the Prophet’s life, we would find that they are more dangerous because they aim to destroy and corrupt Islam from the inside while the Christians’ and the Jews’ attempts are open and clear even if they share the same intentions.” He also remarked that “Muslims do not forget their pernicious role in loyalty to the Jews and Christians and their betrayals throughout history, in the past and present.”
Positive reactions to Naik’s presence
Roznama Ummat publication
The Qatar world cup has received strong support and applause from the public as well as from Islamist voices. The pro-Taliban publication Roznama Ummat is also among the supporters. The Urdu-speaking publication sheds light on the Qatari government’s plans for da’wa (preaching) at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. The article, “FIFA World Cup And Da’wa Of The Religion,” authored by Islamic religious scholar Zia Chitrali, outlines a number of media campaigns and events organised to preach about Islam to non-Muslim fans and convince them to convert. Thousands of volunteers are expected to participate in da’wa activities during the festivities scheduled by the authorities. Additionally, free books and brochures showcasing Islamic beliefs will be handed to spectators. Roznama Ummat describes the international sporting event as a “golden occasion”, praising Qatari officials for having made full preparations for inviting the spectators to Islam – “the training of 2,000 volunteers for da’wa of the religion at the tournament has been completed, and they will deliver the message of haq [truth] to the spectators coming from all over the world via different means. Ten vehicles will be deployed for the da'wa work and ten special camps will be installed [for da’wa-related goals].” The article further notes that Qatar has issued regulations aimed at preserving Muslim culture and civilisation [during the games]. “In this context, an open warning has been issued to gays that if they become guilty of any heinous act, including waving their flag, they will be dealt with in accordance with Qatari law.”
Ahmed Al Shanqiti
The Islamist preacher Ahmed Al Shanqiti supported Zaker Naik in a tweet, saying: “They banned him [Naik] from travelling the world to call to God, so God gathered the world to him in Qatar to call people to God,” followed by a verse from the Quran.
Dr Mohammed Assagheer
It is also worth noting that the Egypt-based Islamist preacher Dr Mohammed Assagheer reposted Al Shanqiti's tweet and wrote a tweet accusing France of conducting a hate campaign against Qatar, citing the Mayor of Paris’s decision to boycott the World Cup.
Negative reactions by other Islamists
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)
Although the Qatar World Cup has received significant appreciation from well-known Islamist preachers, other Islamist extremist counterparts and organisations have raised their voices, urging Muslims around the world to shun the sporting event. AQAPfor example criticised Qatar a day before the tournament began for bringing “immoral people, homosexuals, sowers of corruption and atheism into the Arabian Peninsula” and said the event served to divert attention from the “occupation of Muslim countries and their oppression,” according to a statement issued by a monitoring group. The terrorist group further urged Muslims to boycott the event: “We warn our Muslim brothers from following this event or attending it,” said the statement, reported by the SITE Intelligence group on Saturday.
Anjem Choudary
Before being suspended from Twitter, the controversial UK-based Islamist hate preacher Anjem Choudary (whose full profile can be found here on EMAN’s database) also claimed that the decision made by the Qatari government to host the world cup was “not Islamic”, and accused the government of collaborating with “enemies of Muslims”.
Hakim Al Mutairi
Another prominent Islamist preacher who opposes the sporting tournament is Hakim Al Mutairi (whose full profile can be found here on EMAN’s database). Lately, Al Mutairi has been actively posting on Twitter, expressing his strong opposition to hosting the international sporting event in a Muslim country, saying: “For those who do not see in the Qatar World Cup anything but sport, without the whole scene as a celebration of the ‘Western occupier’ and its international organisations, through which they impose normalisation with the Zionist occupier and alienation of Arab societies under the guise of coexistence and tolerance, in order to achieve, under the slogan of sports in Qatar, what they have achieved under the slogan of entertainment in Saudi Arabia and the slogan of Abrahamism in the Emirates!.” He further claimed that “a new religion is being imposed on the Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula that has nothing to do with Islam, and that this religion aligns with the vision of the ‘Crusade and its Masonic organisations’, that has religious sheikhs and artists participating in its ceremonies, and that is pushed by secularists and Islamists! The festivities begin with the Qur’an and end with Satan worship!.”
