Muslim soccer fans feel the indigenous British should abandon their entire history, symbols, mythos and heroes to not offend them

The more I think about this article, the more it pisses me off. The explanation of the crusades given by the author is of course, total hokum. The Muslims never thought about the crusades in fact, other than a minor inconvenience that Europe lost, until they realized that it was a powerful tool of European self-loathing.

From The Guardian:

Euro 2012: I want to be an England fan and a Muslim. Why’s that so hard?

England football fans dressing up as Christian knights from the Crusades doesn’t endear Muslims to the cause

Euro 2012: England fans before their first match v France

England fans outside the Golden Lion in Donetsk, Ukraine before the team’s match against France. Photograph: Lewis Whyld/PA

As England play their first games of Euro 2012, I’d like to be an England fan. But even though I’m English, it’s hard.

For a start, as a British Muslim, I am unsettled by the sight of England supporters dressed as Christian knights and jovially waving Crusader shields at the European championships in Poland and Ukraine. Footage of last night’s cagey opener with France was interspersed with close-ups of young men dressed in the armour of Knights Templar hordes. There’s an irony in the fact that images of Polish supporters chanting antisemitic slogans and giving Nazi salutes have been met with such deserved outrage, but to brandish a sword and recall the brutal and bloody invasion of Muslim lands is portrayed as harmless banter.

There is an obvious difference of course. I don’t for a second believe that those dressed as Christian knights do so to offend Muslims – I hope not, anyway – whereas there is obvious menace in the sickening behaviour by neo-Nazis. But this doesn’t make it any less disturbing an image for the Muslims in this country and around the world.

The Crusades are romanticised in the west as heroic battles to win back the holy lands in the name of Christianity. But for Muslims they are remembered as two centuries of brutal and unprovoked attacks on Arab lands. To celebrate this in fancy dress recalls a bloody and divisive chapter in Muslim-Christian relations. That may not be the intention of those donning the fake chainmail and helmets but there’s no denying it’s a uniform of war that certainly doesn’t instil a feeling of inclusiveness in me.

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About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

11 Replies to “Muslim soccer fans feel the indigenous British should abandon their entire history, symbols, mythos and heroes to not offend them”

  1. I wrote this several months ago.

    “England, 2050

    The UK desintegrated. Northern Ireland joined Ireland, and Scotland became independent republic. Both of them were immigration unfriendly. Their leadership declared that they will keep Ireland for the Irish people, and Scotland for the Scotish people. Argentine took the Falklands.

    Meanwhile, the English flag was changed – the cross was removed since it was considered to be offensive to many people. The flag was now white, the flag of surrender. England was no longer officialy christian country. Christmas was no longer a public Holiday. Christmas and New Year trees were no longer allowed in public, since they were considered to be racist and xenophobic symbols. There was an intense debate whether the year was 2050 AD, or it was 1471 AH. The old New Year holiday was no longer official, since it conflicted with the muslim calendar.
    There was no such thing as english name. Arab, Hindu, and Turkish names were considered to be english names as well, while Mohammed was the most popular “english” name. Many streets names were changed to arab names. London was renamed to Londonistan. Red Crosses were removed from ambulances and hospitals to minimize the risk of riots.
    The Greenwich Meridian was sold to Mecca. The food in public institutions was Halal only.
    History was rewritten. The english were described as bad, guilty people, racists and nazis, who created havoc and mischief around the world. Immigration was described as a divine punisment against them, where the innocent people from around the world came to England to punish the english racists for their deeds. The streets were no longer safe for the english minority. They were often attacked for being white, or for being infidels. The PM recently declared that since only white people can be racist, hate crimes against the english does not exist.”

  2. My responce:

    As a Briton and Europian it is a part of your heratige and history. Britons past triumphs are your past triumphs. You should join in the fun and take pride in your history. There’s nothing stopping you from putting on a crusader costume and joining in and you shouldn’t let some crabby self centered killjoys get in the way of you being proud of your British heritage.

    The only people who’s goats this should get are those who happen to live in the countries where this took place- and it was so long ago that they’d have to be nuts to actually care.

  3. Selected comments from the Grauniad article, published at New English Review by Esmerelda Weatherwax:

    Comments include

    Wazza – “for Muslims they are remembered as two centuries of brutal and unprovoked attacks on Arab lands”

    Followed by several centuries of brutal Arab colonialism in Spain and Italy….

    Peter – “As a British Muslim, I am unsettled by the sight of England supporters dressed as Christian knights”

    They are dressed as St George, England’s patron saint. If the image of St George unsettles you, then you will have to avoid art galleries and ancient churches as well as England games.

    Peter again – “… but to brandish a sword and recall the brutal and bloody invasion of Muslim lands is portrayed as harmless banter.”

    Some historical events that preceded the First Crusade …

    AD 632 — Muhammad’s death.

    AD 635 — Christian Damascas fell to invading Muslims.

    AD 636 — Christian Antioch fell to invading Muslims.

    AD 638 — Christian Jerusalem,and later Alexandria,fell to invading Muslims.

    AD 650 — Muslim armies reached Cilicia and Caesarea of Cappodocia. In the same period Muslim forces carried out raids on Cyprus, Rhodes, Crete and Sicily, carrying off thousands of Christian slaves.

    AD 668 — Muslim armies laid siege to Constantinople. They were repulsed.

    AD 711 — Muslim armies invaded Spain. By AD 715 they had conquered most of Spain.

    AD 717 — Muslim armies again laid siege to Constantinople. Again repulsed.

    AD 732 — Muslim armies invaded France. Charles Martel stopped them at Tours.

    AD 792 — The Muslim ruler of Spain, Hisham, called for a new invasion of France. An international Islamic crusade was assembled, and was repulsed by the French.

    AD 827 — Muslim warriors invaded Italy and Sicily, terrorised monks,and raped nuns. Sicily was held by Muslims until AD 1091.

    AD 846 — Muslim armies reached Rome, where they forced the Pope to pay them tribute.

    AD 848 — France was again invaded by Muslims. And again repulsed.

    AD 1059 — Pope Urban II launched the FIRST Crusade.

    Runfold – oh get a life please? For crying out loud. Dressing up as a knight in armour is supposed to be a reflection of English history.ready to do battle and all that. You don’t have to do it yourself. You could variously ignore it or laugh with people or support England in your own way.

    This is what people mean by unwillingness to assimilate. By all means support England your way. Bring something new to the party. Show people your England. Make people laugh with you and show you are part of the crowd. That’s all anyone asks of an England supporter. But don’t expect to be able to stand on the sidelines telling other people that they can’t support England their way. It’s not religion or ethnicity that’s making you feel like an outsider. It’s a crap attitude that wants to tell people what to do, what to wear and how to enjoy themselves. A pretty un English attitude really.

    How about a bit of self reflection on that.?

  4. “….giving Nazi salutes have been met with such deserved outrage, but to brandish a sword and recall the brutal and bloody invasion of Muslim lands is portrayed as harmless banter.”
    is the colourful history of Islam of no consequence?
    that colour being mainly red.

  5. If he and his Muslim brothers want to be part of Western society, when they see something that “offends” them, just consider the source, look away and mind their own business, the way the rest of us do. They can’t expect us to turn ourselves into pretzels trying to please them, but, of course, convinced of their superiority, they always will. My roots are German, but we left the Germanic attitudes and prejudices behind because we realized we’d reached a better place than we left.

  6. So What. Muslims intentionally dress and wear their facial hair like the most famous serial killer and pedophile in history and nobody seems to be bothered by that.

    But if I decided to start dressing like John Wayne Gacy every day people would start to talk.

    Though when I put it like that, maybe they should be. If I started dressing like John Wayne Gacy every day and telling everyone he was the greatest man ever- well, I’d think people would have a right to be concearned.

  7. boo feckin hoo, who cares about crusades, happend too long time ago to be remembered…

  8. This artcile is little more than complete BULL-S.H.I.T. Can anyone of u clever cloggs please tell me which muslim has actually said any of this? Who would want to be apart of a group of fans that consists of drunken thugs who terrorise any country they go to watch England play? Whichever idiot has written this article isnt really bothered about how Muslims or anyone else feel about anything. They just needed an excuse to try and delude people into continuing this whole notion of hate against anyone who is a muslim or resembles one

  9. I’m intrested to know that when the people who write articles like this, how many people have they actually gone out and asked? Who gave u this information?

    In reality they don’t really have anything interesting to write about so they make up stories like this. Quite sad really, if this is what it’s come to