Politics

The Muslim manosphere and Achraf Hakimi

Published

2 hours ago

July 9, 2026

The World Cup quarter-final against France folds every saga about Moroccan defender and captain Achraf Hakimi into a single frame.

France is the team that ended Morocco’s historic 2022 run, the country where Hakimi became a global star at Paris Saint-Germain — and the legal system now charging him with rape over a 2023 allegation.

Hakimi denies any wrongdoing. But if convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison. A quarter-final loss Thursday would raise the possibility that this becomes Hakimi’s last World Cup game and that Moroccan football loses one of its clearest throughlines from its 2022 breakthrough as a global football power to its role as a 2030 World Cup co-host.

A global vessel for Arab, African and Muslim pride in the last World Cup in Qatar, Hakimi soon emerged as a different kind of icon elsewhere: In 2023, amid his divorce in Spain, online manosphere circles obsessively embraced an unverified rumor that he shielded assets from his wife by placing them in his mother’s name. Lauded by figures including controversial online influencer Andrew Tate, Hakimi was cast as a masculine legend imagined to have outsmarted a woman in a rigged gendered battle. This lore has been resurfacing the past three weeks, since a French court ruled Hakimi would stand trial for the rape charge.

While Hakimi’s exploits clash for some fans, they are congruent enough for others. Within Muslim manosphere circles, there is no contradiction between Hakimi the superstar and Hakimi the defendant.

Western manosphere ideologies frame men as individuals dispossessed by the state and by women who have gained too much power, with divorce law, false allegations, dating culture and economic independence among major fixations.

In specific Muslim contexts, manosphere beliefs echo similar gripes but center them around a restored family unit and the sharper absolutism that gender roles have strayed from divinely sanctioned hierarchy. More than a simple misogyny flanked by cherry-picked Quranic verses, it is a politics of anti-liberal gender views, minority resentment and secular distrust.

French courts strike a particular nerve: State secularism promises neutrality toward religion, but many deem that neutrality a guise to police Muslim communities and their racial minorities. Hakimi will be adjudicated in what some defenders consider an inherently hostile judicial order — one shaped by modern Western feminism and refracted through older tropes of the “dangerous Muslim man” in Europe, where biases pull on centuries of migration, empire and civilizational suspicion.

The cultural politics of Hakimi’s case extend beyond the star athlete. Patriarchal interpretations of Islam can mobilize new support for right-wing parties in Western democracies, even amid otherwise exclusionary stances. And Muslim women are left with a pointed dilemma: Naming gender violence within their communities can be read as feeding anti-Muslim sentiment, while not naming it feeds the silence that insulates perpetrators.

That tension between gender and religion, defense and accountability, surrounds the Hakimi case during this unresolved period. The verdict isn’t likely to lead to a resolution that satisfies all — acquittal will look to many as if his status protected him, and conviction will suggest to others that no status would ever be enough to earn fair treatment.

Politics

Dream lives for Moroccans in Brussels

Published

5 minutes ago

July 9, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

BRUSSELS — The atmosphere at Le Stalingrad tea salon in Brussels is electric, full of supporters packed shoulder-to-shoulder, with Arabic commentary blaring from the televisions and every chance greeted by deafening reactions.

The crowd has erupted each time Morocco held firm defensively, but the loudest roar of the night (so far) came when France’s Kylian Mbappé missed a penalty, sending the tea shop into a frenzy of cheers and chants of “Bouno!” — the Moroccan goalkeeper’s last name.

Not every ovation was football-related: fans also burst into applause when pop star Shakira appeared on the stadium screens during the broadcast.

For some supporters, however, the evening carries significance beyond full-time. “It would be a shame if there was violence after this game,” said Moroccan native Adil, 23, recalling the unrest that followed his country’s World Cup victory over Belgium four years ago. “It was terrible.”

Whatever the outcome against France, Adil said he would continue supporting Belgium in the tournament if Morocco is eliminated.

Politics

Morocco has its eye on the 2030 final

Published

35 minutes ago

July 9, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Morocco is having a moment as a powerhouse soccer nation, reaching the business end of back-to-back World Cups and seeing a pathway to winning this year’s tournament.

“Morocco has gained everybody’s respect now,” team coach Mohamed Ouahbi told reporters after the squad’s victory over the Netherlands in the first knockout round of the 2026 World Cup. “It’s not because of what we’ve said. We’ve now shown it.”

Morocco has its eyes on staging the 2030 final, as well, already antagonizing its co-hosts in Spain and Portugal in its efforts to claim the next men’s tournament’s showcase match.

Since the country’s historic run to the 2022 World Cup semifinal, Rabat has accelerated spending on stadiums and academies, while positioning itself as Africa’s premier soccer hub. It staged the 2026 African Cup of Nations, which it lost on the field during the final — before a court overturned the result.

A key element of Morocco’s soccer expansionism is the aggressive recruitment of diaspora players with dual nationality, particularly those developed in European academies.

The national team has successfully persuaded stars born or raised in countries such as France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain to represent Morocco, strengthening its competitiveness while reinforcing ties with Moroccan communities abroad.

At home, Morocco is spending more than a billion dollars on soccer stadiums, irritating some citizens. A wave of protests roiled the country in fall 2025, as a Gen-Z-led movement demonstrated over chronic failings in health care and education — and criticized the investment on soccer arenas. In a sport long dominated by European interests, Moroccan maneuvering has won the world’s attention.

“One of the positives of the World Cup is that every four years you’re reminded that there is incredible talent and ambition and passion for the sport outside of Europe; and for all its faults, one message that FIFA firmly has right is that football belongs to the world, not only Europe,” an official with ties to European soccer leadership, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive political dynamics, told Blue Light News.

“Within that, Morocco is a really positive case study — quietly developing on the pitch into being a powerhouse; while gaining influence politically off the pitch. And as we saw during Qatar 2022, they have the most wonderfully passionate fanbase,” the official added.

The next off-field test of how seriously the soccer world takes Morocco’s emergence will come when FIFA has to decide where to place its 2030 final. Soccer’s governing body decided in late 2024 to accept a joint bid from Spain, Portugal and Morocco to host the centenary tournament.

Spain is putting forward two of the sport’s most famous spaces, Camp Nou in Barcelona and the Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid. Morocco has one that hasn’t yet been built: A 115,000-capacity Stade Hassan II near Casablanca that soccer officials say will be ready by the end of 2027.

Politics

Brussels wants action over Trump-Infantino red card controversy

Published

1 hour ago

July 9, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Seventy-two members of the European Parliament on Wednesday demanded an investigation into FIFA President Gianni Infantino after FIFA lifted the red card suspension of star U.S. striker Folarin Balogun following a call from President Donald Trump.

Last Thursday, Trump called Infantino to lobby for the automatic ban given to Balogun after receiving a red card against Bosnia and Herzegovina to be overturned. Four days later, FIFA’s disciplinary committee cleared Balogun to play in a crunch match against Belgium.

In a letter sent to the national football federations of the EU’s 27 member countries and obtained by Blue Light News, the lawmakers asked them to “add your voice to recent calls in support of an investigation” into Infantino.

“Let us be clear: FIFA’s decision to change the rule on red card suspension mid-tournament is a disgrace and perversion of justice,” said Renew MEP Barry Andrews, who wrote the letter. “Once again, we’ve seen Infantino and FIFA surrender to the demands of the Trump administration.”

Despite Balogun taking part, the U.S. lost to a fired-up Belgium team, whose players mocked Trump’s dancing after scoring their fourth goal in a 4-1 demolition of the host nation.

The lawmakers argue that since FIFA imposes its ethics rules on the 27 member associations, they are similarly “bound by FIFA’s code of ethics to demand that senior FIFA officials be held accountable.”

FIFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter, but Infantino has previously denied influencing the committee’s decision.

Wednesday’s letter is the third missive in two weeks from European lawmakers to the world football governing body. Andrews wrote a letter last week urging FIFA to investigate Infantino over alleged violations of the organization’s own political neutrality rules, telling Blue Light News that FIFA was “profoundly corrupt.” Two days later, fellow Renew MEP Petras Auštrevičius rebuked FIFA over its decision to allow Russians to participate in the U-15 World Cup in October.

The previous letters drew signatures from 50 and 44 MEPs, respectively, making the newest letter the most broadly supported push yet. The letter was signed by MEPs from six parliamentary groups.

“Not many issues can garner that level of bipartisan support,” Andrews added.