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<h1><b>Instep Intifada: Soccer Star Stands for
Gaza</b></h1><font size=3>
<a href="http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/16442" eudora="autourl">
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/16442<br><br>
</a>February, 07 2008 <br><br>
By <b>Dave Zirin</b> <br>
Source: Philadelphiaweekly.com <br><br>
<br>
In a world where mainstream media dumb down news reportage with inane
sports metaphors, sometimes it takes sports to remind us of the gravity
of the actual news. While the press acts like extras on Gossip Girl as
they assess the latest machinations of Bill, Barack and Hillary, a soccer
player aimed to alert the world to a humanitarian catastrophe.<br><br>
Egyptian midfielder Mohamed Aboutreika of the Al-Ahly Pharoahs is the
player who stepped up to this task. It’s a safe bet that Pharoah mania
isn’t exactly sweeping the States. It’s also probably true that most
readers don’t know Mohamed Aboutreika from Muhammad Ali, but the two men
share more than a name.<br><br>
After scoring in the Egyptian national side’s 3-0 victory over Sudan in
the African Nations Cup, the player known as the Smiling Assassin lifted
his jersey to reveal a T-shirt that read, “Sympathize with
Gaza.”<br><br>
For such a simple slogan, the reaction has been profound. Aboutreika
received a yellow card for breaking world soccer’s ruling body FIFA’s
year-old rule against political sloganeering on the pitch, and a
suspension may be in the works. But then the unexpected: The
confederation was flooded with emails from fans and even reporters
expressing their support for Aboutreika’s actions.<br><br>
“He is a good player and he belongs to all Arab and Muslim nations, and
he reflected what is in our hearts,” journalist Ahmed Gamal wrote to
FIFA. “We are asking you, in the name of human rights, to cooperate with
us and support him. Please do not even think about any suspension for
him, because your tournament will be fake and the whole Muslim world is
supporting him. Please don’t make that mistake. We are all sympathizing
with Gaza.”<br><br>
The immediate solidarity was due as much to the man as the message. For
those who care more about navel lint than the seditious, flag-burning
world of soccer, Aboutreika isn’t some obscure sideline footballer. One
of the top players in Africa, he’s known as the “Smiling Assassin” for
his trademark ear-to-ear post-goal-scoring grin.<br><br>
Like calling Walter Payton “Sweetness,” it speaks to Aboutreika’s
personality more than his play. He’s a media favorite for treating fans
and reporters alike with a rare respect.<br><br>
He follows the Muhammad Ali credo: “I’ll never look down on someone who
looks up to me.” If Roger Clemens can make a person feel like bathing in
Listerine after meeting him, Aboutreika makes the people around him feel
lifted for loving sports.<br><br>
After his team won the African Champions League in 2006, the press
lavished him with praise. But Aboutreika gently rebuked them, saying, “We
need to stop this habit of praising [an individual] player. It isn’t
Aboutreika, but the whole team who got the Cup. Without the others’
efforts, I can’t ever make anything. Football is a game played by many
players. It isn’t tennis or squash.”<br><br>
He has said: “Every athlete has a humanitarian role in society. He
doesn’t live solely for himself, but for others too. I like to
participate in charity work and try my best to help the poor and
penniless. I’m also seeking to use soccer in humanitarian work.”<br><br>
Quaint as this may sound, Aboutreika backs his words with deeds. He’s
made fighting poverty the focus of his life out of uniform, appearing in
an Egyptian public service announcement broadcast in which he said:
“Hunger takes away a child every five seconds. We have to move
immediately and lend each other a hand because every second counts. This
is a game we have to win.”<br><br>
For a person committed to fighting poverty, the need to raise awareness
about Gaza is an act of obvious principle.” (John Edwards, take
note.)<br><br>
FIFA may have been horrified by this breach of politics/sport propriety,
but that’s nothing compared to what’s happening in Gaza itself.<br><br>
Like Gotham in Kurt Russell’s Escape From New York, Gaza has become a
prison city, a scrap of land containing 1.5 million prisonersmen, women
and children. Bad turned to dystopic on Jan. 18, when the state of Israel
imposed a total Gaza blockade. Before this action, unemployment exceeded
40 percent. Now life in Gaza isn’t about finding work. It’s about basic
survival.<br><br>
<br>
“A stream of dark and putrid sludge snakes through Gaza’s streets,” wrote
journalist Mohammed Omer. “It is a noxious mix of human and animal waste.
The stench is overwhelming. The occasional passer-by vomits. Over recent
days, this has been a more common sight than the sale of food on the
streets of Gaza, choked by a relentless Israeli siege.”<br><br>
All of this came home after hundreds of thousands of desperate residents
fled Gaza through a breach in the border wall. As Al Jazeera reported,
“If Gaza is the biggest prison on the planet, this is the biggest jail
break.”<br><br>
This is what pushed Aboutreika to make his stand. How novel to see a
superstar athlete stand up and protest the wreckage of U.S. imperial
policy in the Middle East. Tom Brady is more likely to call his new
cologne “Gaza Mist” than acknowledge the humanitarian horror show
underwritten by his tax dollars.<br><br>
Against the expectation of star athletes and his own federation,
Aboutreika has decided that while there’s a soul in prison, he himself
isn’t free. Amid the graveyards dug by the West, a smiling assassin has
taken a stand for survival and a measure of human compassion.<br><br>
<br>
<i>Dave Zirin is the author of the new book "Welcome to the
Terrordome:" with an intro by Chuck D (Haymarket). You can receive
his column Edge of Sports, every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com
Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com<br><br>
<br><br>
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