The Athlete for Peace project emerged with the aim of showing that Islam is a religion like all others, and had as its symbol the Muslim surfer Jihad Khodr. Jihad is the son of Lebanese, born in the city of Matinhos, Paraná, and is the only Muslim surfer who participated in the World Surf League and joined the elite of world surfing. In 2015, he was named “Athlete for Peace” based on his history of resilience and faith. Jihad went through troubled times in his life because of drug use and it was in the Islamic religion that he found reasons to rise again.

Today, the athlete is back in surfing competitions and takes advantage of his visibility to be a propagator of the message of peace in Islam. During competitions, a six-meter bottle is inflated on the sands of the beaches and Jihad presents people with small bottles that contain the word “peace” in several languages, demonstrating what unites – or should unite – all peoples.