A photo of Mohamed Salah with his family sparked controversy on social media

Photo: OLI SCARFF/Getty Images

The Egyptian footballer Mohamed Salah unleashed an avalanche of criticism on social media after share a photo with your family celebrating the Christmas holidayssomething that is repeated every year since his signing at Liverpool, and that on this occasion It generated discontent from many Muslim Internet users to the point that the largest Islamic body reacted to the controversy.

The origin of this controversy lies in the Christian character of the Christmas holidaysnon-existent in the Muslim religion that is the majority in Egypt, the country of Salah’s birth, as well as in most Arab countries, who have Islam as their main confession.

Salah’s social networks were flooded with criticism of the photograph in which he appears with his wife and two daughtersin Christmas clothes before a Christmas tree, while few comments in Arabic They supported the star of the Egyptian soccer team for this Christmas snapshot.

Some of the users attacked the Egyptian player on social media with comments like “A photo like this will bring you closer to the English, but it will lose many of your Muslim fans to the Arab world”, “Enough bowing to the West, you are a role model for Muslim youth” and came to call him “infidel.” Few were the comments that supported or defended Salah.

In addition, many users attacked Salah for not supporting the teams of Saudi Arabia or Morocco in the World Cup and not celebrate in the same way events that have to do with the Muslim religion; criticism to which the player reacted by remaining silent.

For his part, Dar al-Ifta of Egypt, the largest Egyptian Islamic advisory body, spoke on social networks about the controversy that is unleashed with each holiday related to Christians, and indicated that “There is no prohibition in the Sharia, to congratulate non-Muslims on their holidays, this is not a departure from Islam as some extremists say.”

“Congratulating the country’s partners on their parties is part of good neighborliness, returning the congratulations and coexistence, and they are noble human principles that are demanded in the Sharia and the Sunna, which were practiced in the biography of the Prophet”, the statement added.

You may also like:
° Cristiano Ronaldo does not escape criticism: Fabio Capello questioned the attitudes of CR7
° “I received hate messages and threats from the Mexican fans”: Argentine Cristian Battocchio confessed the problems he faced in Liga MX
° A psychologist analyzed the “Dibu Martínez effect” of the 2022 Qatar World Cup final