Khabib Nurmagomedov attacks French President Macron over comments about Islam

Khabib Nurmagomedov denounced French president Emmanuel Macron on Friday following the world leader’s latest comments on Islam. Nurmagomedov, one of the most popular Muslim…

By: Karim Zidan | 3 years ago
Khabib Nurmagomedov attacks French President Macron over comments about Islam
Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

Khabib Nurmagomedov denounced French president Emmanuel Macron on Friday following the world leader’s latest comments on Islam.

Nurmagomedov, one of the most popular Muslim fighters in the world, referred to Macron as “scum” and invoked the wrath of God on the French leader after he defended the caricatures and cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

“May God disfigure the face of this scum and that of all his followers who, under the slogan of free speech, offended the feelings of over 1.5 billion Muslims,” Nurmagomedov wrote in an Instagram post (h/t RT Sports). “May the Almighty humiliate them in this life, and in the next. Allah is quick in calculation and you will see it.

“We are Muslims, we love our Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) more than our mothers, fathers, children, wives and all other people close to our hearts. Believe me, these provocations will come back to them, the end is always for the God-fearing,” Khabib added.

Nurmagomedov’s post, which was accompanied by a verse from the Quran as well as a picture of Macron with an imprint of a shoe on his face, has accumulated more than 2.5 million likes in seven hours.

View this post on Instagram

Да обезобразит Всевышний лицо этой твари и всех его последователей, которые под лозунгом свободы слова оскорбляют чувства более полутора миллиарда верующих мусульман. Да унизит их Всевышний в этой жизни, и в следующей. Аллах скор в расчёте и вы это увидите. Мы – мусульмане, любим нашего Пророка Мухаммада (да благословит его Аллах и приветствует) больше, чем наших матерей, отцов, детей, жён и всех остальных близких нашему сердцу людей. Поверьте мне, эти провокации им выйдут боком, конец всегда за Богобоязненными. – ‎قبح الله وجه هذا الأبتر وجميع تبعهم الذين يؤذون الشعور أكثر من نصف مليار مسلم تحت قناع الحرية ‎أذلهم الله في الدنيا والآخرة إن الله سريع الحساب ‎نحن مسلمون نحب رسولنا ونبينا محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم أكثر من أمهاتنا وآبائنا وأبنائنا وأزواجنا ومن جميع خلق الله سبحانه وتعالى ‎صدّقوني هذه الاستفزازات سوف تخرج من أعناقهم والعاقبة للمتقين – Holy Quran 33:57 —————— إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يُؤْذُونَ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ لَعَنَهُمُ اللَّهُ فِي الدُّنْيَا وَالْآخِرَةِ وَأَعَدَّ لَهُمْ عَذَابًا مُّهِينًا Воистину, тех, которые поносят Аллаха и Его Посланника, Аллах проклял в этом мире и в Последней жизни и уготовил им унизительные мучения.

A post shared by Khabib Nurmagomedov (@khabib_nurmagomedov) on

The retired UFC champion’s comments come in the wake of Macron’s defense of freedom of expression after a high school teacher was beheaded in a Paris suburb for showing pupils caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in a lesson on free speech.

“Islam is a religion which is experiencing a crisis today, all over the world,” Macron said in a speech earlier this month.

Macron’s stance on the cartoons, which are seen as blasphemous in Islamic teachings, have prompted a wide-scale backlash from the Muslim world, including Muslim leaders like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Since those comments, three more people have been killed in a knife attack in Nice on Thursday, in what is suspected to be a terrorist attack.

“Very clearly, it’s France that has been attacked,” Macron said in Nice. “If we are under attack, it’s because of our values, our taste for freedom, the ability on our soil to have freedom of belief. And I say it with clarity again today: We will not give any ground.”

Nurmagomedov is not the only fighter who has been vocal about Macron’s comments. Russian middleweight Magomed Ismailov labeled former Russian presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak a “stupid animal” over her support for Macron. However, Nurmagomedov has been known to make statements in defence of Islam in the past, as well as political statements regarding corruption in Dagestan.

Share this story

About the author
Karim Zidan
Karim Zidan

Karim Zidan is a investigative reporter and feature writer focusing on the intersection of sports and politics. He has written for BloodyElbow since 2014 and has served as an associate editor since 2016. He also writes for The New York Times and The Guardian. Karim has been invited to speak about his work at numerous universities, including Princeton, and was a panelist at the South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival and the Oslo Freedom Forum. He also participated in the United Nations counter-terrorism conference in 2021. His reporting on Ramzan Kadyrov’s involvement in MMA, much of which was done for Bloody Elbow, has led to numerous award nominations, and was the basis of an award-winning HBO Real Sports documentary.

More from the author

Recent Stories