"Messi is the enemy of Allah": How a French politician was tricked by a crude TikTok hoax

Following the 2026 World Cup group stage match played on Sunday night between Argentina and Algeria (3-0), a video circulated widely on social media, fueling a heated controversy.

The video shows a group of Algerian supporters singing a chant in Arabic. According to several accounts that shared the clip, the lyrics are: "Messi is the enemy of Allah. Algeria will annihilate the infidel nation of Argentina."

The Hamas Atrocities account, known for its pro-Israeli stance, claims that this scene illustrates that "everything is jihad for Muslims. Everything." In France, the video was also shared on Facebook by the far-right politician Jean Messiha, who claims that it was filmed in Kansas City, where the meeting took place.

But this video is actually a montage.

#n chant that mentions neither Messi nor Argentina

Firstly, careful listening to the video, as well as the translation of the song into Arabic, shows that the lyrics do not correspond to those put forward in viral posts.

The supporters are actually chanting: *“La ilaha illa Allah, Mohammed rassoul Allah, Sissi adou Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah”*, which can be translated as: “There is no god but God, Mohammed is his messenger, Sissi is the enemy of God, God, God, God.”

The chant makes no reference whatsoever to Lionel Messi. The name spoken is that of Sisi, referring to Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the president of Egypt, which could be confused with Messi for those who do not understand Arabic. The lyrics also make no mention of Argentina, nor of any alleged desire by Algeria to "annihilate the infidel nation of Argentina." This slogan actually predates the 2026 World Cup. It is a political chant that has been heard several times in the Arab world and originated after the death in 2019 of Mohamed Morsi, the former Egyptian president who was overthrown in 2013. The chant has since been adopted in several North African countries.

This can be heard in particular in a video filmed in Tunisia and broadcast on October 14, 2019 by the Qatari channel Al Jazeera Mubasher, after Kaïs Saïed's victory in the presidential election. From the 37th second onwards, the crowd repeats exactly the same words.

A doctored video and manipulated sound

Jean Messiha claims that the scene was filmed in Kansas City, USA, where the match between Algeria and Argentina was taking place. However, several elements rule out this hypothesis.

In the background of the video, two clothing retailers, Zara and H&M, are clearly visible. However, checks performed on Google Maps show that neither brand has a store in Kansas City. It is therefore impossible that the video was filmed at the location indicated by the far-right commentator.

A keyword search, however, makes it possible to find videos showing the same scenes, presented as having been filmed in Rotterdam, Netherlands, on the occasion of the friendly match between Algeria and the Netherlands, played on June 3, 2026. Comparison with Google Maps confirms the presence of the same signs in front of the World Trade Center Beurs in Rotterdam, where the video was indeed recorded, several weeks before the Algeria-Argentina match.

The question of the chant remains. In the various videos filmed on site, several chants from supporters can be heard, but none correspond to the anti-Sisi political slogan mentioned above.

It can therefore be established that the video's audio has been manipulated. On one of the videos shared on X by the account *Hamas Atrocities*, the TikTok watermark reveals the name of the account that originally published the video. Upon re-examining this video on TikTok, which has over 14 million views, it is clear that the creator replaced the original audio with another using the platform's audio upload feature.

The viral video is therefore a montage: it combines images shot in Rotterdam in early June, before the friendly match between Algeria and the Netherlands, with a soundtrack from a completely different context, that of a political slogan targeting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Furthermore, clashes were indeed reported in Times Square, New York, before the match, between groups of Algerian and Argentinian supporters. Several videos filmed on site show skirmishes and tensions.