Muslim preacher warns it’s ‘haram’ to watch the Matildas

In Australia and the UK Muslim preachers and writers are not keen on women’s sport.  From the Melbourne Herald Sun and elsewhere. 

Takeadean Mohtadi, imam at the MyCentre mosque in Broadmeadows, (suburb of Melbourne) said in a viral TikTok clip on Friday that Muslims must be “careful what you watch, who you watch and who you support”.

“The Women’s World Cup — the Matildas — I’m addressing my Muslim brothers,” he said in the clip which has been viewed 46,000 times.

“Did we forget that it is haram for us to look at the opposite gender? Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala [the most glorified God] has commanded us to lower our gaze to the opposite gender. Did you forget this? And not just this … did we forget who we’re supporting?”

Mohtadi then stressed that many of the players in the competition were members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

“They might be hiding under the Australian flag, but the reality is subhanallah [glory to God] these people that you were supporting, you’re liking their posts, you are sharing them, you’re commenting on their posts — these are people of the alphabets, the majority of them,” he said. And they are pushing this agenda through the athletes. When your kids are looking at you supporting them, sharing them, they think it’s OK. But hold on, aren’t you worried about this? . . .

In a previous video last December, Mohtadi explained that he loved the men’s World Cup because it proves “you can get up for qiyam al-layl, for the night prayer, you can get up for fajir [dawn] prayer. Here in Australia the games were beginning roughly around 2am, 6am,” he said. “So if you’ve gotten up for the soccer game, then you can get up for qiyam al-layl and fajir prayer — unless you’re giving preference to the soccer game more than your creator.”

In Sydney preacher Mohamed Shaar wasn’t so polite. 

The preacher, who has more than 4,000 followers on Facebook, again sparked controversy on Saturday when he labelled gay players as ‘filthy’. ‘Please for Allah sake teach your girls what is halal and what is forbidden in Islam,’ he said.

‘When you teach your kids dancing expect them to dance and when you teach them music expect them to sing and when you teach them to be like boys then expect them to be like them.

‘So Matilda or ballooot playing soccer and everyone cheering them on and you have those filthy people posting and doing this crap then you are supporting them. I could find two definitions of ‘baloot’  – an Arabic card game and a dress shop; other than that I don’t know what he is on about, but it doesn’t sound flattering. 

‘Fear Allah this world is corrupt and need to wake up, teach how to be a Muslim to be girls and boys to be boys, wallah it’s getting sick by the minute.’

In England Roshan Muhammed Salih who edits the Muslim propaganda sheet 5Pillars thinks women should only play behind closed doors. 

No Muslim should support the concept of women’s sport played in public. Pretty obvious that it contravenes Islamic principles. Let them play their games behind closed doors but not in public.

He’s getting a lot of stick for this on Twitter or X or whatever its called this week, including from many with Muslim names. . I know it can be the on-line equivalent of Macfisheries fish queue but it has a place, if treated with caution.

• Yet he still chooses to live in London. It sounds like Afghanistan should be heaven on Earth for him. Even Saudi Arabia might be too liberal for him now
• Exactly. .you shall go back to Pakistan.. Tent, goat, donkeys every thing is plenty
• @RmSalih  looking at the comments, you have some serious haters on this platform akhi. in other words, keep going!
• @RmSalih Doesn’t bother me one bit