Muslim French footballers embarrass far-right rhetoric: IOD

CAIRO – 19 July 2018: The fact that half of France’s World Cup winning team is comprised of Muslims is a powerful response to the rampant Islamophopia in France, Islamophobia Observatory Department, affiliated with Egypt’s Dar Al-Ifta (House of religious edicts), stated Thursday.

In a statement issued Thursday, the IOD contended that the Muslim players led the French squad to win the title of the world’s most prestigious tournament. “Yet, they exposed the double standards of the far-right rhetoric that antagonizes Muslims.”

The French national squad’s Muslim players, who are also of African descent, are: Adil Rami, Djibril Sidibé, Benjamin Mendy, Paul Pogba, N’Golo Kanté, Nabil Fekir and Ousmane Dembélé.

The statement further read that the above-mentioned fact did not grasp the attention of the French media, which points an accusing finger at the population of 1.8 billion Muslims whenever a terrorist attack takes place.

The statement concluded with confirming that the Muslim players do not possess any kind of advantage over their mates; however, the achievement they contributed in is just a good message to the far-right discourse that conflates Muslims with evil deeds.

France managed to win the 2018 World Cup held in Russia, after the team gave a great performance throughout the stages of the tournament, to be a second well deserved World Cup for Les Bleus.

The French president attended the final game between his national team and Croatia, alongside 14 other world leaders, including Valdimir Putin and Croatia President Kolinda Kitarovic.

In 1998, a group of French players of African descent led the French national team to their first World Cup title at home.

One of the prominent stars back then was Zinedine Zidane, who was born in France in an Algerian family.

Zidane scored two of France’s three goals at the 1998 World Cup final against Brazil and since then he has been considered a beacon of hope for the African/ Muslim immigrants.