Tristar Gym head coach Firas Zahabi has expressed strong disappointment toward Gordon Ryan after the no-gi grappling star endorsed a film that Zahabi describes as anti-Muslim propaganda.
The film in question depicts a vigilante character who confronts a Muslim man portrayed as having assaulted a young woman, with the Muslim character’s family defending the act by citing the Quran. The film has been promoted by Elon Musk, Gordon Ryan, and Renzo Gracie, and has drawn a significant following within alt-right circles online.
Speaking during a live Q&A session on the Tristar Gym YouTube channel, Zahabi pulled no punches in his response.
“The movie is a propaganda tool retweeted by Musk, retweeted by Gordon Ryan, which I’m really disappointed in,” Zahabi said. “Gordon Ryan, highly ignorant. You’re perpetrating and peddling ignorance.”
Zahabi took direct issue with the film’s central premise that the Quran sanctions or encourages s3xual vi0lence. He argued the opposite is true, pointing to Quranic teachings that instruct men to lower their gaze when they see a woman. He went further, stating that any s3xual relations outside of a publicly recognized marriage are prohibited entirely under Islamic law.
“You have to be completely brain d3ad to interpret the Quran that way. Or you know nothing about the Quran. So it’s either ignorance or you’re brain d3ad,” he said.
Zahabi was careful to separate the actions of individuals from religious doctrine. He acknowledged media reports about grooming gangs with Pakistani Muslim backgrounds in the United Kingdom and made clear he supports legal accountability regardless of a perpetrator’s religion or background. His objection is not to prosecuting those crimes, but to using them as a basis for broad religious characterization.
What concerns him most is the real-world effect such content can have. Zahabi pointed to incidents including an individual attempting to attack Muslims with a machete and a separate incident in which a man opened fire inside a mosque in San Diego, suggesting this kind of media environment directly contributes to violence against Muslim communities.
“Elon Musk, Gordon Ryan are encouraging people to do something so st*pid that it’ll get them in jail,” Zahabi said.
He described the film as a fantasy designed to satisfy the impulses of those promoting it rather than address any real social problem.
Zahabi stressed that his frustration with Ryan is not rooted in personal animosity but in what he sees as a responsibility that comes with a large public platform.
