Of course! A soccer game! Why didn't we think of it before? Why, this will nicely expunge all Sharia-inspired sentiments that homosexuals deserve to be murdered. Next up: the State Department squares off against the Taliban on Field 3. From AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:
A Dutch multicultural group is organizing a soccer tournament between gays and Muslims, hoping to counter what a study published on Thursday said was a rising tide of fear among gays.A nationwide survey by the Police Research Academy said that most gays questioned feel unsafe and reported experiencing verbal attacks in the last year.
Of the 776 homosexuals who responded to an internet questionnaire, 80 percent said they believed their safety was threatened at some time during the year, said academy director Frits Vlek, who commissioned the research.
Only 3 percent said they were physically assaulted, Vlek said in an interview, but some 40 percent claimed they had been insulted or verbally abused.
Youths from Moroccan and Turkish backgrounds often were blamed for the incidents, Vlek said, since homosexuality is not widely accepted in many Muslim cultures.
"Parts of the Muslim community still resist homosexuality and receive little education about it," he said.
Oh, I am sure they receive plenty of education about it. It's just not the kind of education that this multicultural group likes, and they can't bring themselves to admit that there could be a problem that doesn't stem from ignorance, and that can't be solved by an introduction to liberal pieties (with a few welfare benefits thrown in).
Muslim-gay tension is the theme of the soccer tournament organized by the Institute of Multicultural Development, to be held next week.An organizer of the group, Suzanne Ijsselmuiden, said she hoped the competition will "help ease these tensions so that people can openly talk about homosexuality."
Gay Muslims can take their choice of teams, she said. "People can have many identities."
How nice.
I hope the Gays all wear T Shirts sporting a picture of Pym Fortyn (excuse spelling).
Does Ms. Ijsselmuiden actually expect even one Gay muslim to sign up and choose to play for the Gay team(s)? I truly can't imagine that.
This would certainly be an interesting story to follow, to see what actually happens. In fact, it deserves a documentary. With the proper spin, such a documentary would be a shoe-in for next year's Oscar awards. Get to it, Hollywood types. Think of the acclaim you will receive! The fame! The glory! The adoration of the intelligentsia, and probably even news anchorpersons! And if reality ends up biting, just fabricate!
I think I've posted that before but some conservative German bloggers (hat-tip: http://www.myblog.de/politicallyincorrect) intend to go to Iran's World Cup matches during this summer's competition carrying Israeli flags.
I would like to urge all freedom loving football fans to consider joining in. For more info go to http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/ or check out Iran's fixtures directly at http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/w/team/overview.html?team=irn
- they're playing in Nuremburg, Frankfurt and Leipzig.
P.S.: Come on, England
A skit from the early Monty Python.
Charles Martel tried this one before settling on more traditional combat with infantry and cavalry.
Hey, I have an idea. Let's organize a joint tea party for the Black Panthers and the KKK. All we need to do is let them get to know each other as just regular folks, mutual ignorance and fear will be banished, and then they can all be one big happy family and live happily ever after in eternal peace and tranquility.
Will women be allowed to watch?
I've often thought that sports teams and interest in them help sublimate a certain human tendency toward tribalism and a group's desire to feel special/superior into a harmless activity; as such, I've often thought that, among other hobbies, the Mideast could use a football team (American or otherwise) or two.
But the only reason that works is that the dispute is about the game itself: Win some, lose some; better luck next year. This not the case in a Gay/Muslim soccer match.
Having people competing according to any grouping other than their ability to play soccer defeats the whole purpose of trying to make them work together and build understanding. If they really want that to happen, they should put the gay and Muslim players on the same team.
What's next? Leapfrog?
Why don't they play hide and seek with the Muslims, let the Muslims hide first, and then just not go looking for them?
Just the fact that it is gays vs. muslims and not gays vs catholics or gays vs teamsters or gays vs cowboys is a victory for civilization. The AP was motivated enough to report it. Even the most unaware must be asking why gays vs. muslims.
A skit from the early Monty Python. - Hugh
Or from Most Extreme Elimination Challenge, aka MXC, particularly due to the unusual and unrelated team names:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MXC#MXC_.28Most_Extreme_Elimination_Challenge.29
You might like it.
You might not.
100% chance of one of those being true.
D. C. Watson has a good idea for a game. Except that his idea has already been appropriated, and that very game is being played with Muslims by the immigration and naturalization services all over the Western world -- with the results we all see.
Why not a Gays vs Muslims duel? Gays armed with bayonets, Muslims with swords.
Oh, and starting lines are at least 100 yards apart. 50 members per team
The US will spend $US8 million over four years to fund an Indonesian version of Sesame Street, complete with puppets wearing Islamic veils and burkas - part of Condoleessa Rice's broader message that Western culture can co-exist peacefully with moderate Islam.
Now thats handy, apart from blowing 11 million on these stupid experiments, how the hell are you going to tell one puppet from another if they are wearing burkas?
I wonder if I could smuggle some US money tree seeds into Australia??
Several Muslim countries, especially Turkey, Iran and the Arab ones, have in fact taken up soccer vigorously (same as Pakistan and Bangladesh with cricket). The thing is however that, while there are plenty of talented players, they just do not seem able to get out of the various disabilities of Muslim cultures: machismo, complete lack of self-control, and a tendency to crowd violence. Turkey is notorious around Europe for the violence of its fans, and an Egyptian striker recently astonished the whole soccer world by having a stand-up row with his national team's manager in the middle of a decisive Africa Cup soccer tie. Nevertheless I think that soccer may well do more to civilize the Muslim masses than any Sesame Street derivatives. It demands teamwork, obedience to the rules, and respect for your opponents, all things that Muslims very badly need to learn, and makes no distinction between Believers and Infidels.
That is not to say that this is anything but a pathetic late-hippie why-can't-we-all-just-get-along piece of nonsense.
Lisa,
Will women be allowed to PLAY?
Paolo, to be fair it would have to be said that muslim soccer fans do not have a monopoly on violent behaviour. English soccerfans are among the worst and the whole fan sub-culture is used as a front by many neo-nazi groups who are more interested in violence than the actual soccer matches.
expatriate_DK, no later than a couple of days ago, a gang of Roma supporters set upon some Middlesbrough fans for no reason and stabbed two in the back. I am as aware as anyone of the vileness of football hooligans, and Italy has some of the worst. Nonetheless, the fans of Galatasaray and other Turkish teams have a reputation all of their own: across Europe it is felt that to travel to Istanbul or Trabzon on a match day is to take your life in your hands. The difference, in so far as there is any, is that the vicious and thuggish behaviour typical of hooligan minorities across Europe is, in Turkey, the proud (!) prerogative of the whole body of fans.
My! Gays vs. Muslims in Soccer? This should be fun to watch, but I will watch on TV, thank you. I've gone to bed listening to mortar fire 5-10 miles away, and don't relish the thought of being somewhere in person when violence could break out.
ExpatriateDK: I've also heard that UK soccer fans have had a large role in forming the stereotype of the "yob" (a backwards boy?)who shows Union Jack undies at a match; and have heard tales from elsewhere in Europe about soccer hooliganism. Among the barbarian cowboys of my own country, the worst I've ever experienced is a jeer or two when I wore a Redskins cap (given me as a gift) too far beyond the Beltway.
if the muslims win do they get to kill the gays?
Will the players be forced to go through a metal detector before they play? I can see it now...slash and burn football.
if the gays win do they get to *censored* (I'm sure your imaginations will run wild) the muslims?
Well good luck to the woman. At least she recognises there is a problem, and if it encourags just a few Muslim football players and supporters to be a little less homophobic then that's something at least.
Now what will the crowd be chanting? If there are female supporters in the Muslim end, perhaps "Get yer face out for the lads!".
And I thought Turkey was one of the more moderate Muslims countries where gays are not persecuted by law to the extent they are in other islamic countries (though I'm aware it's no picnic). If the Turks are homophobic, then heaven help the gays when they meet nutters from countries that kill/imprison them
Are you sure this story isn't a parody from the Onion? I'm seeing the Islamic shahada on the Saudi style flag except the flag is pink instead of green, or a rainbow crescent and star. There is clearly some degree of sublimated homosexuality in Islamic segregation and covering of women.
This is why Galatasaray is a dirty word in our house.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1813634.stm
Me thinks the muslims protest to much anyway.....................could it be that culturally, sex with other men is the best that can happen with any freedom in the muslim world, then they find a poor female from whom they can breed but generally not have a normal relationship with. (excuse grammar)
I was told (by an arab) "women are for breeding, men are for fun"
This is all very well ...but the hypocrisy ! ! !
Paolo and ExpatriateDK: English football supporters in general are a lot less violent than ten or fifteen years ago. Political correctness has taken a hold of the UK and that extends to football as well. I've heard of a few cases where supporters were arrested because they swore at the referee during the game (no problem to detect when you've got about 50 - 100 cctv cameras inside a stadium).
Re. the aforementioned Egyptian player Mido: When my team played his team (Tottenham) earlier this season our always friendly crew came up with a nice song along the line of "Your mother is a suicide bomber"... After the match our manager felt the need to apologise for the behaviour of the supporters.
I will be at the return match in May... it will be interesting to see if the song will be sung again ;-)
disillusioned_german: I am aware that the situation in the UK is not as bad as it used to be, although in other countries it is bad and getting worse - Italy being one of the worst. But thuggery is nothing to be happy with, and if you call its reverse "political correctness", I have to wonder about you. Leave that sort of thing to Muslims - or, indeed, remove it from them as well.
Carolyn2: "slash and burn football" is great. I haven't laughed so hard in days.
I'm from America and don't know the slightest thing about your "football" over there...
But from what I've heard, I think I can piece it together:
Their balls can be touched by every body part except their hands... (unusual) and they get all sweaty trying to shove their balls into some kind of zone at either end. If they do this, then they "score". If they don't, then the other team gets to handle the balls until they "score". Do I have it right?
Paolo: I'm against football related violence but if you can get arrested for calling a referee a **** or a ****** whilst watching a Premier League game with a 35,000 attendance I'd say that's political correctness gone mad. Haven't the Old Bill got better things to do (i.e. arrest muslim demonstrators calling for the Danish cartoonists to be killed)???
I also swear at the TV when watching football matches in my own home ... swearing has been a part of football and always will be. Emotions run high and you'll get reactions that aren't always subtle. I guess the Spanish and Italians need to look at the behaviour of their supporters (as you're rightly saying). Things are even worse in Eastern Europe and I don't think this year's World Cup will be as peaceful as the German authorities hope (sadly).
Gays vs Muslims?
As if Muslims don't have Gays amoung themselves!.Being in constant tour to Middle Eastern Muslim countries,I am fully aware of the Arab Muslims' day to day life ,particularly before their arranged marriage. Since they are secluded from the female comapny,other than the family members,the young males bond themselves together,and you can find them huging each other,or holding hands in public.They sexually releve themselves with their male friends,and the religious Mullas turn their heads the other way,as they too would have indulged in such practices during their younger days. So don't come to the conclusion,that Muslim will not be gay. In western countries,Gay Muslims are slowly comming out,and even join in Gay Parades,as they do in Toronto gay parade in Canada,and in Lausangeles gay parade in the USA. So saying there is no gays amound Muslims is just like saying Islam is a peaceful religion.