This is the kind of story that really makes me worried, and leads me to believe that Pope Francis might have a point about it being World War III right under our noses.
During a moment of silence (or what was supposed to be a moment of silence) meant to honor the victims of the Paris attacks, there was a vocal minority of fans who
Some even shouted "Allahu Akbar," which is quite chilling, given that this is what has often been said by terrorists while in the act of committing their atrocities.
My guess is that they are either tired of Westerners stereotyping Muslims, or perhaps they feel that the victims of the bombings in Beirut (more thoughts on that in a post that I hope to publish soon).
Either way, however, I think that this kind of behavior is disgraceful and inexcusable. There is no reason, absolutely none, that can justify such blatant disrespect towards victims of terrorism.
Turkish Soccer Fans Boo a Minute’s Silence for the Victims of Paris Attacks by Rishi Iyengar, Nov. 17, 2015:
Before I respond, a polite reminder to reread your posts carefully for typos before publishing them. To wit: (1) "[...] there was a vocal minority of fans who", and (2) "or perhaps they feel that the victims of the bombings in Beirut (more thoughts on that in a post that I hope to publish soon)". Don't trail off and leave your readers hanging. Anyway, I just wanted to say that I had heard about this sickening incident as well, and agree that there's no justification for it. Particularly in light of the fact that if we westerners are indeed collectively guilty of selective sympathy by paying little to no attention to what happened in Beirut, responding to that bias with selective sympathy of a far more grotesque nature (booing and chanting during a moment of silence to pay tribute to the victims in Paris) isn't exactly a classy or noble way to set an example. Moreover, if they're tired of westerners stereotyping Muslims, they might want to refrain from - you know - enthusiastically enacting said stereotypes. I'm reminded of a Simpsons episode wherein some Italian-American mobster says something to the effect of "This ethnic stereotyping really burns my cannolis", at which point he pulls out a machine gun and opens fire. That made me laugh because it was just a politically incorrect (not to mention tongue-in-cheek) scene in a cartoon. Something tells me irony isn't what the lowlifes calling attention to themselves for all the wrong reasons at that game in Turkey were going for...
ReplyDeleteI often publish posts without rereading them. Bad habit, I know. I'm even worse with my fiction, where I usually hate reading my own stuff over again. In my defense, though, I was really, really tired last night/early morning, when I wrote this. Meant to get back to it, but actually did not get the opportunity to today. Will try and see if I can add or subtract from it a bit tonight.
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