In El Madrigal stadium and during Barcelona’s game against Villarreal in the Spanish Liga, Barcelona was ahead by a score of 3/2, dark skinned Brazilian player Daniel Alves was getting ready for a corner kick when a Villarreal fan threw a banana at him.
Danny’s reaction was utterly simple; he picked up the banana, took a bite, threw away the rest of it and continued playing. But for the Sports scene worldwide, that bite didn’t go by that simply, and unleashed bottled up anger and resentment against racism in sports.
Alves’ banana coincided with another incident in the US; a leaked phone call between Donald Sterling, owner of the NBA team Los Angeles Clippers, and his girlfriend. Sterling was asking her not to appear in public with colored athletes, including NBA legend Magic Johnson
As I’m writing this from Rio de Janeiro, I was able to personally feel the Brazilians’ anger at this insult. Famous Brazilian football player, Neymar, appeared on TV eating a banana to show his support for his colleague, and launching the “Somos todos macacos” or “We’re all monkeys” campaign. The campaign gained enormous support, nationwide and worldwide, and even Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff participated, as well as many celebrities worldwide. Daniel Alves appeared on the cover of Veja, the most prominent magazine in Brazil, giving the “banana gesture”, which means (I don’t care) or (go to hell).
The Villarreal fan who threw the infamous banana was arrested, and turned out to be an employee of Villarreal. He was fired and banned from working for the club for life, and may even face up to three years of jail time for promoting racism. Donald Sterling faces a 2.5 million-dollar-fine, the largest ever in the history of sports in the US, as well as pressure from the NBA and other team owners, which will inevitably force him to sell the L.A. Clippers.
The same week the world has shown zero tolerance for racism in the international sports scene, there was a similar incidence back home. After the Saudi team Al-Ahly was defeated in the final match of the King’s Cup, Ahly player and Saudi national team captain, Tayseer Al-Jassem, a Shiite, was the victim of racist attack from Ahly fans.
Tayseer Al-Jassem walked out of the field in tears, and his brother stated that he might not continue playing for Ahly, and would play in the Qatari league instead. Tayseer is one of the most prominent Saudi football players, and is well known for his good morals and discipline. Al-Jassem has been a target for racist attacks for while now, as I noticed from his twitter account, which he quite abandoned since October 2012, because of the depressing racial comments following his every tweet.
A radical anti-Shiite channel, broadcast from Saudi Arabia, Al-Wessal, aired an episode called “Agents of Iran”, during which Sheikh Ghazi Al-Fareeqa launched an attack on Tayseer Al-Jassem, saying: “It’s shocking for me to see a leading Shiite football player amongst his fans, who curses our Mother Aisha, but instead cheer for him. As for me, I trust more in the faith of a drug dealer who refuses to curse our mother Aisha -than him- And the fans, even if they don’t fulfill God’s every order, are good, faithful Sunnis”.
The channel still broadcasts, our national newspapers didn’t run the sectarian statements, and no reaction was to be heard from Al-Ahly management against their racist fans, and not even an apology to their captain was issued. There was no formal, or even informal, reaction from the General Presidency for Youth Welfare.
Up till now, we don’t have a law in Saudi that incriminates racism, not even in sport. Yet there’s a hope; Saudis on Twitter started a group of hashtags that apologize to Tayseer Al-Jassem and denounce racism, most famous was (We’re all Tayseer).
One tweep wrote: “Tayseer’s foot is more useful to this country than your wasted brain cells, and his shoe is cleaner than your vile tongues”.
https://twitter.com/algarniM/status/462513734192472066
This hashtag is still active, and it has forced Al-Wessal channel to tweet in defense, apologizing to Tayseer.
Ironically, though, one of its tweets says: “Wessal’s main goal is to attract and convert the general Shiite population, saving them from hell. Badmouthing one of them means destruction for the channel and its message”. Typical the epitome of pride and monopolizing the truth.
https://twitter.com/Wesal_TV/status/462565340569169921
My only comment here is to remind you of a story that happened in Munich last May. One of Bayern Munich Muslim players made a formal request for the club management, asking to appoint a room for prayer. The club responded by largely financing the establishment of a large mosque in its headquarters. It’s sad to compare the state of tolerance the world sports scene, to our own near-sightedness, at the heart of the Islamic world.
The renowned Palestinian Muslim scholar Sheikh Adnan Ibrahim said once, in his speech “The Fiqh of Criminals”, or the Criminal Islamic jurisprudence:
“May Allah avenge us from those sheikhs and clerics who spread hatred amongst Muslims, and plant spite in our hearts against the whole world, calling them heretics, infidels and enemies of Allah. We now deny Allah’s blessings; you live there, in Western countries, enjoy your peace, eat off their tax-payers’ money, and then the first chance you get, you go: (I’ll kill & butcher them). What religion is this? What fiqh? It’s the fiqh of criminals. Those are people who lost their humanity in the name of religion. Whose religion is this? Genghis Khan’s? It’s definitely not the religion of the Holy Qur’an that says; (And we have not sent you, [O Muhammad], except as a mercy to the whole world). What’s this craziness we live in? O’ Allah, we denounce them, for they’ve wronged themselves, their religion, and prophet Muhammad”.
Manal al-Sharif 