Doha
\nAs I sat with my family watching the first half of France vs Morocco, a chant from Moroccan fans rumbled through the stadium. \u201cNo way \u2013 but it sure sounds like it.\u201d They were, in fact, repeating the first half of the Muslim declaration of faith, \u201cThere is no God but God,\u201d and a few claps later, the second half: \u201cMuhammad is the messenger of God.\u201d A sort of collective rallying cry to both uplift spirits and express pride in Islam\u2019s central creed among fellow believers. It was the winning streak that at least in this region, we could not look away from \u2013 the deeply satisfying underdog narrative of this World Cup, most deliciously for Arabs, Africans, the diaspora in the West, and Muslims collectively, rejoicing at an authentic representation of their lived faith and values on display in the most celebratory way.
\nWhen some of the players showed the world just how much they love their mothers, many Muslims joked that it was only due to the \u201cmother\u2019s \u2018dua\u2019 [prayer]\u201d that they were still hanging on.
\nOthers commented that their against-all-odds victories \u2013 against Belgium, Spain, Portugal \u2013 were a case of feeling more at home at the first World Cup in the Middle East, being in their neck of the woods (or the closest thing to it), and the energy of the fans, that propelled them to keep on keeping on.
\nNo one could deny the electrifying Moroccan fandom that to an outsider seemed to pop up in Qatar overnight. And that is the thing about this story in particular \u2013 it was as much about the fans as it was about the players.
\nWhen Morocco beat Portugal last week, a colleague turned to me and asked an important editorial question: \u201cSo, the first African team to make it to the semis, or the first Arab team?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Doha As I sat with my family watching the first half of France vs Morocco, a chant from Moroccan fans rumbled through the stadium. \u201cNo way \u2013 but it sure sounds like it.\u201d They were, in fact, repeating the first half of the Muslim declaration of faith, \u201cThere is no God but God,\u201d and a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-301548","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n