Sheikh Salah: Qatar World Cup conveys true image of Islam to world

The head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Sheikh Raed Salah, has praised the World Cup currently taking place in Qatar, saying the organisers have conveyed a bright and true image of Islam to the world.

In an article titled “The World Cup in Qatar… Culture and Politics before Football,” published by Al Jazeera yesterday, Sheikh Salah said: “Whoever follows the World Cup matches in Qatar … will realise that they carry cultural and political connotations before athleticism.”

“Everyone who visited Qatar will return to their countries and will convey to their families the true, pure, undistorted image of Islam as they directly heard and saw it. They will brag about the pictures they took in Qatar, and the last thing they will talk about is football,” Sheikh Salah said.

Spectators who attended the World Cup, he explained, will have mixed with the people of Qatar and visitors from Islamic nations, the Arab world and the Palestinian people and came into close contact with the Arab-Islamic culture and Palestinian rights, adding that these people will return to their countries and talk to their families and friends about the “culture of mercy, tolerance and serenity” and that the Palestinian right is victorious and will not be lost.

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