Europe Features
Barcelona badge said altered to avoid offending Muslims
Dec 15, 2007, 14:48 GMT
Madrid - The famous badge of Spanish giants Barcelona is being altered in some Arab countries in order to avoid offending Muslims, Catalan newspaper La Vanguardia reported Saturday.
An investigation by La Vanguardia has revealed that in certain Arab countries, especially Saudia Arabia and Algeria, Barcelona shirts are being sold with the badge altered.
The badge, created in 1906, features the red cross of Saint George, the patron saint of the Catalan region which Barca claims to represent.
La Vanguardia reported that the cross has been changed into a single vertical red line in Saudia Arabia and Algeria, because the red cross represents, in the Muslim world, the brutal mediaeval Christian crusades against Islam.
La Vanguardia expressed shocked and indignation at the alteration and has asked club president Joan Laporta to respond to the situation.
So far, there has been no official statement from the club about the issue, which is bound to provoke debate amongst Barca fans.
During the Franco period, from 1939 to 1975, Barca were forced to remove from their badge the red and yellow stripes of the banned Catalan regional flag, since the regime was hostile to all symbols of Catalan autonomy or separatism.
In addition, the club was obliged to change its name from 'Futbol Club Barcelona' to the more Spanish-sounding 'Club de Futbol Barcelona.'
In 1974, with Franco close to death and his regime contemplating a negotiated return to democracy, Barca were permitted to put the red and yellow stripes back onto their badge - and also to recover their original name.
This Barcelona badge episode follows on from the problems encountered by Italian champions Inter Milan in September.
For their Champions League debut in September away to Turkish club Fenerbahce, Inter decided to wear a white shirt with an enormous blue cross on the front.
Inter's choice of shirt was bitterly criticized by some sections of the Turkish media, with accusations being made of having offended Muslim sentiments.
Indeed, lawyer Baris Kaska requested, in vain, that UEFA sanction Inter for wearing a shirt 'which recalls the crusades ... and explicitly manifests the racist superiority of a religion.'
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
page: 1
As if Muslims haven't carried out brutal campaigns for 1400 years and they have flags emblazened with swords with words telling us there is no God but 'Allah'. As if that is not pretty much in-your-face arrogance. Also, the Crusades were in RESPONSE to hundreds of years of Christinas being wiped out by Muslims through Jihad, either by violence or Christians having to pay protection money, a 'special tax' non-Muslims had to pay along with daily humiliation and degradation from Muslims. It's no coincidence that the middle east is 90+% Muslim! (And getting closer to 100% everyday!)
grow up and assimilate?????
Be assimilated by what, the Great US resistance is futile Borg machine? Not in this or the next lifetime, moron.
There is very very little in Islam that I am not offended by.
The thing that offends me the most though is the fact that they are incapable of seeing themself's for what they are.
In both Saudi Arabia and in Algeria anyone caught with a bible will be arrested. In Algeria it is up to five years in prison, and Saudi Arabia one convert to Christianity was recently beheaded on some tromped up charge. In the Kingdom no Bibles, Crucifixes or Stars of David are allowed in. And we are trying to please them.
Question is how far are we willing to go -
Further in Southern Thailand the sight of Buddhist Monks is offensive to Islam, and many of them have been beheaded, driven out of the region, or live in monasteries under heavy guard.
Check out this video on YouTube
'Violence in Thailand's Muslim South Intensifies - VOA Story'
'Then don't come here, moron. Stay in savageland where you are already right at home. By the way there no 'next lifetime' moron, the one you are currently screwing up is the only one you are going to get.'
I have no intention of ever going to the land of the depraved, even as a renditionist. I don't consider Sweden to be savageland, and neither does the rest of the world. And I am perfectly happy with the way my life is unfolding, no screwups here, boy. If you are a Bhuddist, there is a next lifetime. Even deluded christians like you have a next lifetime, supposedly in a Heaven, where you can walk on streets paved with gold and have everything you want delivered by God R us. That sounds pretty much like the Muslim view of the afterlife, doesn't it, moron.
Nothing like freedom of religion, just need a way to figure out how we can tolerate one another without chewing each other out or murdering brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, etc.
Wiping people out is one of the cruelest acts on earth.
Sometimes I think there is little hope left. It is easy to be barbaric, difficult to be civilized.
page: 1
NoharnessDec 15th, 2007 - 17:26:34
It is always a mistake to kowtow to narrow minded stupidity of this kind. It is time for the 'Muslims' to grow up and assimilate. This is the twenty-first century, not the thirteenth.
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