Egypt’s extremist Salafi cleric says football prohibited in Islam, stadium riot victims not martyrs

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - A prominent Egyptian Wahhabi (extremist Salafi) cleric has stirred controversy for saying that victims of the stadium massacre that took place Wednesday are not martyrs and that football is forbidden in Islam.Spokesman of the Salafi Preaching Movement (al-Dawaa al-Salafiya) in Egypt, Sheikh Abdul Moneim al-Shahat, who failed to secure a seat in the first parliament after the Jan. 25 revolution, said those who died at the Port Said stadium in northern Egypt, mostly members of the Ultras football fan group, did not sacrifice their lives for God.“They were not in a war fighting for God, they were just having fun. This fun distracts Muslims from worshipping God,” he said in a sermon he gave Monday in a mosque in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.Shahat claimed that the “fun” which victims sought when they went to the stadium is forbidden in Islam in the first place.“Only three sports are allowed in Islam: shooting, swimming, and horseback riding. Other sports are forbidden.” he claimed.Shahat added that football is a sport imported from the West and criticized football players who join foreign clubs.“Unfortunately, like in the West, football players play in foreign clubs and get very high salaries while many scholars are struggling to make ends meet.”Money spent on football, Shahat argued, should go instead to Quran competitions.Shahat is known for issuing controversial statements especially ones about covering statues, which he considered “idols,” with wax and describing the writings of Egyptian Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz as “prostitution literature.”/129