FIFA World Cup host Qatar seeks to showcase positive and real aspects of Islam to visitors
QATAR: Proudly Muslim, Qatar utilized the FIFA World Cup to reach out to the thousands of visiting fans to change their minds about Islam or even make conversions.
The Gulf emirate is the first Muslim country to host a FIFA World Cup and an array of grand mosques in the rich country helped to pique the curiosity of visitors.
Canadian couple Dorinel and Clara Popa listen to the call to prayer at an Ottoman mosque in Doha’s Katara cultural district.
It is known as the blue mosque of Doha because of the blue and purple tile covering the walls. The couple who was there to watch FIFA World Cup live visited the mosque as a guide took the couple on a tour of a room dominated by a large chandelier.
Dorinel Popa who is a 54-year-old accountant said the couple was looking at Islam first. “We look at culture and people,” he said.
Coffee and Faith
His wife, a 52-year-old doctor also said: “We have ideas in our heads now and maybe some of them will change. The Qatar Hospitality Agency, which manages the Blue Mosque, has brought many Islamic preachers from around the world to Qatar for the tournament.
Outside the mosque, there are various pamphlets explaining Islam and the Prophet Mohammed, as well as Arabic coffee and dates.
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Syrian visitor named Ziad Fateh said the World Cup was “a great opportunity to introduce millions of visitors from across the world to Islam” and change the “misconceptions” about religion that many in the West associate with radicalism.
“We are explaining more to people about morals, the importance of family relations, and respect for neighbors and non-Muslims,” he added. Near the mosque, volunteers manned tables to visit women with signs saying: “Ask me about Qatar.”
Arabic coffee is also offered to those who stop.
A Palestinian visitor, Somaya, said many of the questions were related to “veils, monogamy and whether women or girls are oppressed in religion Islam.”
Qatar’s record on women’s and LGBTQ rights has been heavily scrutinized in relation to the World Cup. Nearby, visitors can check out the five-minute Islamic tour.
Happiness in Islam
In the Pearl District, where many tourists live and enjoy its expensive cafes and restaurants, and where murals have been painted with quotes from the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
High-end stores run ads that promote Islam. At the Souq Waqif market, which is being visited by thousands of FIFA fans, free books and pamphlets are left at the docks that read.
Some Muslim leaders in Qatar have stressed for efforts to convert visiting football fans to Islam. Sultan bin Ibrahim Al Hashemi, professor of Sharia at Qatar University and head of the Voice of Islam radio station, said the World Cup should be used to find new converts and fight Islamophobia.
Hashemi told AFP that when meeting with foreign supporters: “I will give them to convert to Islam. “If I find an opportunity, I will give them Islam with ease and grace, but if I don’t find an opportunity, I will tell them that you are our guests and our brothers and people.”
But he emphasized that Islam does not accept forced conversion.
Media reports claim that hundreds of fans have converted, but an investigation by AFP has proven the claims to be false. An official from Qatar’s ministry of religious endowments told AFP that the state’s goal is not “the number of people who convert to Islam, but the number of people who change their minds about it.”
