At the 2026 World Cup, Iraqi Shias reconcile celebration with grief during holy month

Soccer fans usually feel upbeat emotions when watching their national team play in a FIFA World Cup for the first time since 1986.

But for Iraqi supporters like Hassan Jaber, his country’s participation in this year’s tournament is eliciting conflicting feelings.

“On one hand, we haven’t made it in 40 years. We would like to celebrate the team. We would like to live the moment,” the Iraqi-Canadian told CBC News from Toronto.

“On the other hand, we’re kind of limited on how much we can celebrate. We have this guilt inside of us.”

That guilt is because the World Cup is taking place in the month of Muharram this year, the first month of the Islamic calendar.

For Shia Muslims, this is a month of mourning and extreme grief. It was in these days that the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Imam Husayn ibn Ali, was killed while leading a revolution against Umayyad caliph Yazid I nearly 1,400 years ago.

His burial site sits near where he was killed, in the modern-day Iraqi city of Karbala. His shrine is considered to be one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam and is visited by millions of pilgrims each Muharram.

Because the Islamic calendar is roughly 11 days shorter than the Gregorian calendar, its months shift forward each civil year. 

This year, all three of Iraq’s group-stage games fell within the holy month. Iraq’s Toronto match against Senegal, a 5-0 loss, took place a day after Ashura, the day of Husayn’s killing.

This caused a significant dilemma for local Iraqi fans and mosques.

“When we found out that it’s going to be in Muharram, a bunch of thoughts were racing in my mind at the same time,” said Mehdi Mohammed, the programming director at Masjid Al-Rasool Al-A’dham in Toronto.

“Even some of the … admin team, some of them are crazy, diehard fans. So just speaking to them, I could see some of them pondering, do we go to the [recitation of the account of Husayn’s martyrdom] on the morning of Ashura? Are we going to Iraq versus Senegal?”

Soccer not taboo in Muharram: scholar

As one of North America’s most prominent Shia scholars, Sayed Moustafa Al-Qazwini, has been asked this question many times in the lead up to Muharram and the 2026 World Cup.

The Iraqi-American, who was in Toronto to give Muharram lectures at Masjid Al-Rasool, said many in the diaspora are reconciling supporting their national team with participating in “the most important religious ceremonies.”

The answer from Al-Qazwini is simple: do both.

“We cannot undermine any one of them,” he said. “One of them is a national duty, if you will. The other is religious duty. And both of them are important, and there is no contradiction between them.”

Soccer is the most popular sport in Iraq — so much so that even the highest religious authorities in the country watch football matches, said Al-Qazwini.

This was seen in a recent call for Iraqis to back the national team during the World Cup by Sayed Muqtada Al-Sadr, a leading Shia scholar in Iraq.

But Mohammed and Al-Qazwini also referenced the World Cup during their speeches and lectures in North York.

Al-Qazwini said he believes this World Cup is an opportunity for Iraq to present itself as a growing country that wants to be part of the international community, especially after Saddam Hussein’s tyrannical rule.

That’s not to say the World Cup takes precedence over Muharram.

Al-Qazwini said watching the World Cup shouldn’t come at the expense of attending a majlis, a religious gathering where people listen to the tragedies of Muharram.

Otherwise, Al-Qazwini stressed that watching the games is not taboo or shameful. On the contrary, he said, “the Prophet would encourage his community” to train in sports like swimming and archery.

“When it is a beautiful sport, honourable sport … it would never contradict the principles of our religion.”

Adapting to Muharram

The Iraqi fans were out in full force Friday afternoon, outnumbering Senegal’s supporters in the at-capacity Toronto Stadium.

Most of them were dressed in white or green, Iraq’s traditional colours. But several supporters were also dressed in black, a colour commonly worn during Muharram. 

Jaber, the Iraqi superfan, was one of those in attendance. He also went to Iraq’s two other 2026 World Cup games in Boston and Philadelphia with a group of other Iraqi fans.

“On the way home, we listen to a lecture, we don’t go out, we don’t really celebrate with the team,” he said. “The priority of course would be to commemorate the events of Ashura.”

It wasn’t just Shias either. Jaber said the group driving to and from the cities included Sunni Muslim Iraqis.

Although Sunnis don’t typically commemorate Muharram with as much intense grief as Shias, Sunnis still see Husayn as an important figure — and they made sure the sorrowful atmosphere was maintained on the road to and from the matches.

“The Sunni brothers didn’t want to play music in the car out of respect for Muharram,” he said, adding they even suggested a few latmiyat — rhythmic, poetic chants of grief — on the drive.

For Jaber, Iraq’s World Cup team represents hope for a nation that has been battered by internal and international problems.

“For 40 years, we’ve faced a lot of challenges. We’ve been through at least two different wars. We’ve been under an occupation. We’ve seen Al-Qaeda and ISIS. This team has represented unity for the nation,” he said.

That the team was reportedly considering wearing black for the Iraq-Senegal games makes Jaber happy because it shows everyone on the team — Shias, Sunnis and Christians — “wanted to commemorate this moment.”

At the end of the day, star Iraqi forward Ali Al-Hamadi — who was wearing black wristbands with Husayn’s name on it following the Iraq-Senegal game — says it’s just soccer.

“It’s nothing compared to what Imam Husayn alayhi al-salam [peace be upon him] and his family and all the companions around him went through, so sometimes you have to have perspective,” he told CBC News after Friday’s match.

“It’s in our blood to be resilient, and we’re going to continue to be resilient, insha Allah.”