Video: UEFA to defeat racism with television advert
New spot to air during Champions league games
Any doubt that there is still a racism problem in Europe was confirmed by Emile Heskey’s treatment in Zagreb on Wedensday, and UEFA have now responded with a new anti-racism television advert, which will air at half time in every Champions League game this season. Well, they say it is ‘new’, but it was actually produced for Euro 2008.
On the surface, the video is just a bunch of fans cheering, but European Commissioner for multilingualism Leonard Orban is quick to point out how deep it is maaaan:
“A feeling of common belonging based on linguistic and cultural diversity is a powerful antidote against intolerance,” he said. “By increasing mutual understanding, multilingualism can significantly contribute to the dialogue between people, be it at school, at work or during free time. As this 30-second TV spot shows, football is a good vehicle for interaction and for learning about other cultures and languages.”
1 response so far
Iftikhar Ahmad // September 12, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Muslim youths are angry, frustrated and extremist because they have been mis-educated and de-educated by the British schooling. Muslim children are confused because they are being educated in a wrong place at a wrong time in state schools with non-Muslim monolingual teachers. They face lots of problems of growing up in two distinctive cultural traditions and value systems, which may come into conflict over issues such as the role of women in the society, and adherence to religious and cultural traditions. The conflicting demands made by home and schools on behaviour, loyalties and obligations can be a source of psychological conflict and tension in Muslim youngsters. There are also the issues of racial prejudice and discrimination to deal with, in education and employment. They have been victim of racism and bullying in all walks of life. According to DCSF, 56% of Pakistanis and 54% of Bangladeshi children has been victims of bullies. The first wave of Muslim migrants were happy to send their children to state schools, thinking their children would get a much better education. Than little by little, the overt and covert discrimination in the system turned them off. There are fifteen areas where Muslim parents find themselves offended by state schools.
The right to education in one’s own comfort zone is a fundamental and inalienable human right that should be available to all people irrespective of their ethnicity or religious background. Schools do not belong to state, they belong to parents. It is the parents’ choice to have faith schools for their children. Bilingual Muslim children need state funded Muslim schools with bilingual Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental periods. There is no place for a non-Muslim teacher or a child in a Muslim school. There are hundreds of state schools where Muslim children are in majority. In my opinion, all such schools may be designated as Muslim community schools. An ICM Poll of British Muslims showed that nearly half wanted their children to attend Muslim schools. There are only 143 Muslim schools. A state funded Muslim school in Birmingham has 220 pupils and more than 1000 applicants chasing just 60.
Majority of anti-Muslim stories are not about terrorism but about Muslim
culture–the hijab, Muslim schools, family life and religiosity. Muslims in the west ought to be recognised as a western community, not as an alien culture.
Iftikhar Ahmad
http://www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk
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