Soccer & Ramadan Clash in Algeria

Written by Adam Gonn

Religious leaders in Algeria are furious over followers cutting their prayers short to watch soccer.

When it came to choosing between watching a soccer match or attending Ramadan prayers, Islamic clerics in Algeria are increasingly furious with their congregants’ choice.

Earlier this month, Algerian men started cutting short their mosque prayers or skipping them altogether in order to watch the national soccer team Zambia in a qualifying match for next year’s World Cup in South Africa.

"There are no legitimate excuses for not attending prayers," Sheikh Abdul Rahman Saiban, a leading Algerian scholar, was quoted as saying in the London-based Arabic daily Asharq al Awsat.

Saiban’s statement came in response to a decision by an imam in a mosque in Algiers to cut short prayers due to pressure from his congregants who wanted to watch a soccer match. As it was, the mosque was much less full on the night of the game.

Saiban further noted that Islam is the official religion of Algeria and that all n ational institutes are obliged to align their activities according to the religious calendar.

As it happened, Algeria did win the match 1-nil and appears poised to qualify for next year’s tournament. Soccer fever is running high since this victory meant that Algeria will be represented in the world’s biggest sporting event for the first time since 1986.

Algeria is not the only country where soccer has collided with Ramadan.

In Egypt, which competes in the same groups as Algeria, members of the national team have benefited from a fatwa, or religious decree, from the country’s most important religious institution that allows them to abstain from fasting ahead of its decisive qualifying match against Rwanda. This has reportedly also caused an outcry from the religiously observant.

After several religious institutions condemned the fatwa, the players reportedly did not apply it and ended up fasting.

"This is a stupid fatwa, why would football players break their fast to play 90 minutes match, while Egyptians fought Israelis and crossed the Suez Canal as they fasted during the 1973 war?" one local supporter was quoted as saying.

Egypt, which is the reining African champions, won the game and will now have to beat Algeria in a November match in order to qualify. Not all are confident Egypt will be able to carry one its mantel.

"The consensus here is that if the current team under its current coaching staff doesn't make it to the World Cup this time," Sarah El-Sirangy, Deputy Editor of the Daily News Egypt and a vivid soccer supporter. "(Our generation) won't live to see Egypt play in the World Cup. And you know how much we value football here in Egypt."

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Muslim lunar calendar during which healthy adult Muslims are obligated to fast every day from dawn to dusk, refraining from eating, drinking, smoking and sexual relations. Ramadan is also a time of reflection, charity giving and social gatherings.

The importance and holiness of Ramadan, the only month mentioned in the Quran, lies in the tradition that during this month the Quran, the book most holy to Muslims, was revealed to the prophet Muhammad in the seventh century.

Trade and industry generally come to a standstill during Ramadan, especially when it falls during the hotter months.