The Football Battlefield

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Football protests continue in Egypt

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uploaded by AnanTello

In the last few days, we’ve witnessed a bloody battle in the Middle East. Not at the borders of Palestine, not at the borders of Lebanon and not at the borders of Iraq, Syria, Pakistan or Afghanistan… but at the borders of the Algerian Embassy in Cairo. Obviously, a lot of Egyptians are tough fighters just like their ancestors—who fought for liberty and justice. Now, since grandchildren are supposedly more “modernized”, they must fight for other “modern” purposes… like football!

According to Al-Manar TV, “Protestors hurled stones and firebombs at police near the Algerian embassy in Cairo on Friday, wounding 11 officers as anger mounted over attacks on Egyptians after the countries' World Cup qualifier.” (11-20-2009)

I never heard that our Egyptian brothers and sisters did the same thing at the Rafah Gate when Gaza was—and still is—under siege!  When Sayed Hassan Nasrallah summoned the people of Egypt for the Holy War—Jihad—and told them to open the gates of Rafah with their bodies, he was accused of encouraging treason and calling for a coup d'état. Now I accuse Egyptian football—and all those who allowed that mess to happen—of utter treason, utter racism and utter terrorism.

Egypt had the guts to fight its neighbor, Algeria, for something as ridiculous as football—with respect to all footballers—and Saudi Arabia had the guts to fight the Muslim Houthis of Yemen for no convincing reason… but none had the guts to fight the Zionist enemy in Palestine! No one jumped to the rescue of Al-Aqsa Mosque when his sacredness was being invaded! When the Israeli PM, Netanyahu, threatened to retaliate if the Palestinians declared statehood, he knew that almost no Arab country would stop him because most Arab governments are pet governments and the people—who are supposed to pressure the government—are busy fighting over football.

Prophet Mohammad PBUH said, “The best Jihad is to speak a word of truth to a tyrant ruler.”

Say we spoke this word of truth (as we normally do), the government will surely catch some of us and throw them in jail—let alone what happens inside this jail—what makes the rest shudder and go home—retreat. One would say I have kids, I need to feed them. The other would say I have a spouse, can’t leave her/him alone. Someone else would say I have a good job, can’t afford to lose it. As if those human beings in areas like Gaza Strip and South Lebanon had no kids to feed, no spouses to love and take care of, and no jobs to protect! Do you think they enjoy losing what they’re losing? But here comes the real Jihad. Alas! Obviously, many of us can afford to lose their dignity, pride and faith… but not their wealth and families!

Now if a government were nice enough, it’ll feed us, the public, words. Words, words, words. And most of us eat them… thinking we did a great job by pushing the government to “condemn” the brutal acts of the Zionist enemy. We go back home, lie on the couch, turn on the TV and watch our world get screwed. A lot of us devoured Jamal Abdel Nasser’s words, a lot of us devoured Barack Obama’s words and a lot of us are ready to devour more and more and more words. Words, words, words!

Why do you think the Middle East is a part of the Third World and not the First World? Because Uncle Sam said so… and the majority approved! Not precisely, but action speaks louder than words.

When Uncle Sam said, “Let there be sectarianism in the Middle East.”, it happened! Not because Uncle Sam is some kind of god, but because the majority of the Middle Eastern population gave him their approval. Why do you think pharaohs were pharaohs? Because no one stopped them from being so. Most people bowed and followed… and the ones who didn’t, got killed at the watchful eyes of their people!

We never heard of sectarianism in Lebanon before Israel wanted to have its hands on it. Civil wars are every enemy’s strategy to save money, weaponry and soldiers. Cunningly, the enemy create divisions and empower certain sects. Those sects get busy hating and killing each other. When done, the enemy walks in… clean and tidy. A wolf always eats the stray sheep!

In the RCV class back at high school, we studied The Sniper by Liam O’Flaherty. The story took place in Dublin, Ireland during the first weeks of the Irish Civil War. Almost by the end of the story, the sniper gets really curious about the identity of the man he had just killed. The last statement in the story said, “Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother’s face.”

Believe me, if words could describe the sniper’s feelings when he saw his brother’s face, O’Flaherty would have carried on with the story. The Sniper was fiction, but the difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to make sense. Many similar stories took place in Ireland during the Irish Civil War (28 June 1922 – 24 May 1923). You think the English occupied lands by fighting with so much integrity and honor?

Civil wars are the dirtiest form of war. They break down societies into hostile, aggressive divisions who fight each other till the structure of the nation is totally destroyed. When the foundation of a building is destroyed, do you expect the building to stand still? Surely not. Only then, the enemy would walk into the wrecked country and take over.

Alas! We’re making it so easy for Israel to occupy our lands bit by bit!

Anan Tello