Saturday, April 27, 2013

From Chechnya with ..Soccer



Chechnya, a small country in the Caucasus area of the Russian Federation, has been in the news lately;  the two bombers in the Boston marathon tragedy are originally from that part of the world.

In Israel, two chechen football players (Dzhabrail Kadaiyev and Zaur Sadayev) were the passive protagonists of a big drama at the beginning of this year. And this is the story:


The owner of a major football club in Jerusalem (Beitar club), a russian-israeli oligarch, decided to hire two muslim football players from Chechnya despite the strong objection of the team' s supporters.. Motive: the team needed reinforcement, and the two players , he believed, will do a good job.

 Beitar fans, anti-arab oriented, stated they would not have a muslim player wear the club's uniform. The arrival of the two chechen players (see the above photo with the two in Beitar uniform) sparked a series of provocative actions by the Beitar  hardcore fans:  harassment of the chechens, protests (including racist banners), cursing, and even torching of the club's offices.

The atmosphere became so "hot" that the PM, the President, the Mayor of Jerusalem, and other political and cultural personalities  in the country stood up to condemn the highly provocative attitude displayed by Beitar supporters  towards the two football players from Chechnya.There were also some arrests  carried out among those fans.

I don't know much about sports, but it seems football can bring out the worst in people.

19 comments:

  1. Not only football, but any partisan activity...

    Welcome back!

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  2. Glad to see you back in the blog world. I have missed you. I did take your advise about comments and changed my settings. Thanks for looking out for your fellow bloggers. Sports, Politics, and Religion are the three things that bring the worse out in our fellow humans. I have some in our family who are rabic football fans and they literally hate other Universities and one is the one I have gone which makes me rather uncomfortable when a game is on. I for one do not understand such attitudes. As long as I am not forced to believe as they do, I say live and let live. Again glad to see you back. Peace

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  3. Thank you for your kind words.
    Exactly, not only religion is involved here.
    Beitar is right wing politically. Besides, the owner knew his decision would start a fire, but as a businessman he probably had some personal economic interests to forward in Chechnya.

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  4. It's very sad to see how much the world still struggles with accepting other people. And it's been hard to watch the news the past few weeks. I keep telling myself I don't feel any sympathy for bombers, but I look at the faces of the terrorists and I'm struck by how young they were, especially the survivor. It's heartbreaking that the choices they made brought them to this.

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    1. Heart-breaking, indeed.
      You know what they say, you can take someone out of Chechnya (for example),but you cannot take Chechnya out of this someone- and no american education could change this, which sometimes leads to tragedy.

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  5. When one Catholic does a bad deed it tarnishes the path for all Catholics. Same with different
    countries. The world is in fear from the Terrorists. They have ruined it for all of us.
    Be well Dear Duta, be safe and Happy.
    yvonne

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    1. Yes, fear is a key word. When it comes to terror and terrorists fear paralyzes people everywhere.The world has become a bad place because of them.

      Thanks for wishing me well. I wish you the same.

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  6. As always, you open up the World to me. Nice to see you posting againl

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    1. Oh, I feel flattered and glad you think so. 'open up the World' - sounds so grand! Thank you.

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  7. Yes it has been in the news lately...I am glad you are posting again...yes you open up the world to me again

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    1. Hi, Kim
      Glad to see your comment.The news provide us with all kinds of interesting topics but, unfortunately, not always happy ones.

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  8. It is so sad to see something that should be enjoyable, such as sports, destroyed because of politics. Yet it happens all the time.

    On the bright side, it is wonderful to have you back, you have been missed.

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    1. Sad, indeed.
      Thank you for your kind words. Actually, I didn't go anywhere,I'm just too busy to concentrate on writing. Hope to improve in this respect.

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  9. Your knowledge, or lack of it, about sports is on a par with mine, Duta. Many football supporters and some players could be summarised as 'strong in the arm but weak in the head'.
    I was being treated by a cardiologist last week. He was not English. 'Where are you from' I asked him. "I am Syrian" he said. We chatted for a while about the horrendous mayhem in that country and I learned quite a bit from this doctor. My view of the Assad regime has changed somewhat. We all have been subject to media reports and 'unconfirmed' footage etc. This personal view by a doctor was a balanced view from somebody who regularly visits his relative in Damascus and I was glad to have met him. What sort of world is it we live in today? Frightening in so many ways.
    Could not seem to leave a comment on your latest posting (liver transplant), but I applaud you for sharing it. Regards, Phil

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    1. Thanks for stopping by.
      I suppose the syrian cardiologist sounded pro-Assad to you. Well, the truth is Assad has kept a stable, normal country until the trend of "Arab spring" has come up, and now Syria's falling apart.How tragic for its people!

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  10. It wont let me comment on the post about the liver transplant...maybe it is just me ???

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  11. Not me either, Kim. Google problem or what?

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  12. Kim, PhilipH,

    Thanks for trying to put a comment on my last blog. It seems there's a comment issue I have to solve.
    In the meantime, I've changed the comment format to 'pop up' instead of 'embedded' and, hope it'll help.

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