For the 2026 World Cup, Iraqi Shias combine celebration and mourning during the holy month
Soccer fans often feel the thrill of watching their national team play in the FIFA World Cup for the first time since 1986.
But for Iraqi fans like Hassan Jaber, his country’s participation in this year’s tournament evokes conflicting emotions.
“On the other hand, we haven’t won in 40 years. We would like to celebrate the team. We would like to live in the moment,” the Iraqi-Canadian told CBC News from Toronto.
“On the other hand, we are limited in how much we can celebrate. We have this guilt within us.”
That case is because the World Cup takes place in the month of Muharram this year, which is the first month in the Islamic calendar.
For Shia Muslims, this is a month of mourning and extreme sorrow. It was on this day that the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, Imam Husayn ibn Ali, was killed while leading a revolution against the Umayyad leader Yazid I almost 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 one of the holiest places in Shia Islam and is visited by millions of pilgrims each Muharram.
Because the Islamic calendar is about 11 days shorter than the Gregorian calendar, its months move forward each year.
This year, all three group stage matches in Iraq fell during the holy month. Toronto’s Iraqi game against Senegal, 6-0 loss, occurred after the day Ashura, the day of the killing of Husayn.
This has created a huge problem for local Iraqi fans and mosques.
“When we found out it was going to be in Muharram, a lot of thoughts were running through my mind at the same time,” said Mehdi Mohammed, program director at Masjid Al-Rasool Al-A’dham in Toronto.
“Even some of the… management team, some of them are crazy, die-hard fans. So I’m just talking to them, I saw some of them thinking, are we going [recitation of the account of Husayn’s martyrdom] the morning of Ashura? Are we going to Iraq compared to Senegal?”
Football is not a shame in Muharram: scholar
As one of the most prominent Shia scholars in North America, Sayed Moustafa Al-Qazwini, has been asked this question many times before Muharram and the 2026 World Cup.
The Iraqi-American, who was in Toronto to give Muharram lectures at Masjid Al-Rasool, said many foreigners reconciled by supporting their national team by participating in “the most important religious ceremonies.”
The answer from Al-Qazwini is simple: do both.
“We cannot underestimate any of them,” he said. “One of them is a national duty, if you like. The other is a religious duty. And both are important, and there is no contradiction between them.”
Soccer is the most popular sport in Iraq – so much so that even the country’s top religious officials watch soccer matches, Al-Qazwini said.
This was seen in the recent call for Iraqis to support the national team during the World Cup Sayed Muqtada Al-Sadr, the leading Shia scholar in Iraq.
But Mohammed and Al-Qazwini also talked about the World Cup during their speeches in North York.
Al-Qazwini said he believes that this world cup is an opportunity for Iraq to show itself as a growing country that wants to be part of the world, especially after the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein.
That does not mean that the World Cup is ahead of Muharram.
For Bosnians living in Canada, the 2026 FIFA World Cup opener will have more meaning. CBC Sports’ Shireen Ahmed asked Bosnia-Herzegovina fans to break down their deep connection to the game and why they’re ready to celebrate win or lose.
Al-Qazwini said that watching the World Cup should not have the cost of attending a majlisa religious meeting where people listen to the tragedies of Muharram.
Besides, Al-Qazwini stressed that watching these games is not something sad or shameful. Instead, he said, “the Prophet will encourage his community” to practice sports such as swimming and wrestling.
“If it’s a good game, a decent game … it will never go against the principles of our religion.”
Practice in Muharram
Iraqi fans were out in force on Friday afternoon, outnumbering Senegal fans at Toronto Stadium.
Most of them wore white or green, the traditional colors of Iraq. But a few fans also wore black, a color commonly worn during Muharram.
Jaber, a big fan of Iraq, was one of those present. He also attended two more Iraq World Cup 2026 matches in Boston and Philadelphia with a group of other Iraqi fans.
“We are on the way home, we are listening to the lesson, we are not going out, we are not actually celebrating with the team,” he said. “The priority will be to remember the events of Ashura.”
Nor were the Shias. Jaber said that the group that travels back and forth from the cities includes Sunni Muslim Iraqis.
Although Sunnis often commemorate Muharram with as much mourning as Shias, Sunnis still see Husayn as an important figure – and make sure that a state of mourning is maintained on the way to and from the games.
“The Sunni brothers did not want to play music in the car because they respect Muharram,” he said, adding that they even raised a few. latmiyat – rhythmic, poetic songs of grief — on the drive.
For Jaber, Iraq’s World Cup team represents hope for a nation plagued by internal and international crises.
“For 40 years, we have faced many challenges. We have gone through at least two different wars. We have been under occupation. We have seen Al-Qaeda and ISIS. This team represents unity in the nation,” he said.
The fact that the team was reportedly considering wearing black in the Iraq-Senegal matches pleases Jaber because it shows that everyone in the team – Shia, Sunni and Christian – “wanted to remember this moment.”
At the end of the day, the star of the Iraqi player Ali Al-Hamadi – who wore black wristbands with the name of Husayn. following the Iraq vs Senegal match – he says it’s just football.
“It is nothing compared to what Imam Husayn did alayhi al-salam [peace be upon him] and his family and everyone he was with has passed, so sometimes you have to have a perspective,” he told CBC News after Friday’s game.
“It is in our blood to be strong, and we will continue to be strong, God willing.”
