14, April 2019
European football struggles with racism as French team Amiens halts Ligue 1 game 0
The interruption of the Dijon-Amiens Ligue 1 match on Friday after visiting captain Prince Gouano was the target of monkey chants adds to a string of recent racist incidents across Europe.ADVERTISING
It comes after rising Italy star Moise Kean was targeted by racist abuse in Cagliari in Serie A earlier in the month.
Monkey chants were aimed at England players during a Euro 2020 qualifier in Montenegro and there have been a series of episodes involving London clubs.
“Racism exists in the stadiums in France, but we cannot put the situation on the same level as in Eastern European countries or Italy,” football sociologist Nicolas Hourcade, a professor at the Central School of Lyon, told AFP.
The goalless draw in Dijon was halted in the 78th minute as players from both sides stopped playing and headed towards the touchline after Gouano said he heard insults.
“It’s over,” Gouano said. “We’re not playing on. I’m taking off my team-mates.”
Players, including Gouano went to remonstrate with fans.
Referee Karim Abed also asked the stadium announcer to “get the message across, if it happens again, we stop.”
Following discussions between players, coaches and officials, play then resumed.
“In Dijon, we saw that it was an isolated supporter who could be identified and arrested,” Hourcade said. “In other countries, there are collective demonstrations where a whole section of the ground, or a good part of one, can shout monkey chants or racist slogans.”
After the game, the French league (LFP) said it would investigate and also announced that Dijon had identified the culprit. The club said they intended to press charges.
“These disgusting shouts are contrary to the values conveyed by sport, they insult our Republic, and I welcome the rapid reaction of the LFP: racism will never have a place in France,” responded Interior Minister Christophe Castaner.
Anti-racism campaigners urge abandoning matches.
“We do not tackle the subject of racism as we should,” former France captain Lilian Thuram told AFP in 2018, after Blaise Matuidi suffered abuse when Juventus played at Cagliari.
“Why didn’t the referee stop the match, why didn’t the white players leave the field?”
“If there is no deal with the problem, it will be the same thing in 20 years,” he said.
Yet the same thing did happen when Juventus played at Cagliari on April 2. Kean, along with Matuidi and Brazilian Alex Sandro, were targeted by monkey noises and jeers throughout the match.
‘Openly fascist’
Instead of denouncing their fans, Cagliari’s leadership blamed Kean for celebrating his late winner by standing motionless and silent with arms spread in front of the hostile stand.
“Italy is a case apart for two reasons,” Hourcade said. “The historical strength of the extreme right, and the presence of openly fascist fan organisations.”
But in England too, there have been numerous recent incidents at all levels of football.
On Thursday, half a dozen Chelsea fans posted a video on social media in which they sang that Liverpool’s Egyptian star, Mohamed Salah, was a “bomber”. Chelsea identified and barred three of the fans.
Arsenal are attempting to identify a fan who was caught on video shouting racist abuse at Kalidou Koulibaly of Napoli in a Europa League game on Thursday.
In December, Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling was the target of insults at Chelsea and a Tottenham fan threw a banana in the direction of Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
One of the major issues is “to identify the perpetrators of these acts to punish them,” said Hourcade.
Spurs’ England defender Danny Rose has blasted the game’s rulers for failing to rein in racism, calling their efforts “a farce”.
(AFP)
14, April 2019
‘I did not run for Congress to be silent,’ Ilhan Omar tells Trump 0
In the face of violent attacks from US President Donald Trump and other Republicans, Muslim Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has said nobody could silence her.
“I did not run for Congress to be silent,” Omar wrote on Twitter on Saturday, hours after Trump shared a video suggesting that Omar, a Democratic member of the House of Representatives from Minnesota, was dismissive of the attacks on September 11, 2001.
Ilhan Omar✔@IlhanMN · 14hReplying to @IlhanMN
An administration that would rather give billionaires tax breaks than provide a little cushion for working people. An administration that would rather attack fellow Americans who are transgender and wear our country’s uniform than fight for equality and opportunity for all.
Ilhan Omar✔@IlhanMN
I did not run for Congress to be silent. I did not run for Congress to sit on the sidelines. I ran because I believed it was time to restore moral clarity and courage to Congress. To fight and to defend our democracy.39K7:22 PM – Apr 13, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy11K people are talking about this
The video spliced news footage of 9/11 with a clip from a speech Omar gave last month in which she described the terror attack as “some people did something.”
Omar, who came to the US from Somalia as a refugee and became one of the first Muslim women in Congress, thanked supporters for standing “against an administration that ran on banning Muslims from this country.”
“No one person – no matter how corrupt, inept, or vicious – can threaten my unwavering love for America,” she wrote on Twitter. “I stand undeterred to continue fighting for equal opportunity in our pursuit of happiness for all Americans.”
Ilhan Omar✔@IlhanMN · 14hReplying to @IlhanMN
I did not run for Congress to be silent. I did not run for Congress to sit on the sidelines. I ran because I believed it was time to restore moral clarity and courage to Congress. To fight and to defend our democracy.
Ilhan Omar✔@IlhanMN
No one person – no matter how corrupt, inept, or vicious – can threaten my unwavering love for America. I stand undeterred to continue fighting for equal opportunity in our pursuit of happiness for all Americans.54.9K7:25 PM – Apr 13, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy12.3K people are talking about this
In an other tweet, Omar slammed Trump’s immigration policy.
Ilhan Omar✔@IlhanMN
This country was founded on the ideas of justice, of liberty, of the pursuit of happiness. But these core beliefs are under threat. Each and every day. We are under threat by an administration that would rather cage children than pass comprehensive immigration reform.108K7:18 PM – Apr 13, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy30.7K people are talking about this
In the hours after Trump attacked Omar, top Democrats in the US Congress strongly condemned Trump and other Republicans for attacking Omar over comments she made that seemingly minimized the 9/11 attacks, which were a series of strikes in the US that killed nearly 3,000 people and caused about $10 billion worth of property and infrastructure damage.
US officials assert that the attacks were carried out by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists but many experts have raised questions about the official account.
They believe that rogue elements within the US government, such as former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney, orchestrated or at least encouraged the 9/11 attacks in order to accelerate the US war machine and advance the Zionist agenda.
In Omar’s speech, given to a Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, she said Muslims had “lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen and, frankly, I’m tired of it, and every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it.”
“CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties,” Omar said.
Lawmakers from Trump’s Republican Party have accused Omar of minimizing the 9/11 attacks, while critics of the president say he took Omar’s words out of context in order to stoke anti-Muslim sentiment.
US Senator Bernie Sanders, who is running for president again in the 2020 elections after he lost in 2016, described Omar as a leader with “strength and courage.”
“She won’t back down to Trump’s racism and hate, and neither will we. The disgusting and dangerous attacks against her must end,” Sanders tweeted Friday.
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren condemned the attacks against Omar as not only dangerous for the congresswoman, but Muslims in the US in general.
“President Trump’s inflammatory and dangerous rhetoric towards Ilhan Omar is jeopardizing her safety. He is deliberately putting her and all Muslim Americans in harm’s way,” Inslee tweeted Friday.
Jay Inslee✔@JayInslee
President Trump’s inflammatory and dangerous rhetoric towards Ilhan Omar is jeopardizing her safety. He is deliberately putting her and all Muslim Americans in harm’s way.49.6K1:41 AM – Apr 13, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy16.2K people are talking about this
Warren also tweeted a similar message on Friday: “The President is inciting violence against a sitting Congresswoman—and an entire group of Americans based on their religion. It’s disgusting. It’s shameful. And any elected leader who refuses to condemn it shares responsibility for it.”
Rashida Tlaib, the other Muslim American woman in Congress, was the first on Friday who urged Democrats to “speak up” for Omar.
“Enough is enough,” she wrote. “No more silence, with NY Post and now Trump taking Ilhan’s words out of context to incite violence toward her, it’s time for more Dems to speak up. Clearly the GOP is fine with this shameful stunt, but we cannot stand by.”
Source: Presstv