About

Buff Muslim Guy refers to a viral photograph of a muscular pilgrim standing next to the Kaaba in the Great Mosque of Mecca. Gaining initial spread in December 2018, the photograph became popular source material for ironic memes in the following year.

Origin

On December 13th, 2018, Facebook^[1] group مرصد الأبطال المحترفين posted a photograph of an unidentified muscular pilgrim standing next to Kaaba in the Great Mosque of Mecca (shown below). The post received over 2,300 reactions and 4,800 shares in one year.

Spread

In the following week, the photograph was reposted on Twitter, Reddit and other websites. On December 20th, 2020, Twitter^[2] user @380kmh tweeted the photograph next to the close-up of a person in the background of the image (shown below, left), with the tweet gaining over 80 retweets and 300 likes. On December 21st, 2020, Redditor^[3] mellowmonk posted the photograph to /r/bossfight subreddit, where it received over 14,700 upvotes in six months. On the same day, the photo was reposted to /r/photoshopbattles subreddit,^[4] with the first two known edits^[5][6] of the photograph posted in the thread (example shown below, right).

Prior to December 29th, 2018, an unknown user posted a Thanos / /r/arabfunny edit of the image (shown below). On December 29th, 2018, Twitter^[7] user @Benito95204965 made the earliest known repost of the image. Starting in April 2019, the image received viral spread online, with multiple reposts on Reddit,^[8][9] Instagram, Facebook and other websites.

Hajj Thanos
Hajj Thanos

In the following year, the photograph saw moderate use in ironic memes, particularly in /r/okbuddyretard subreddit and on Instagram.

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References