Racist Tweets Against Mesut Özil

The UEFA Euro 2012 compettition has been a delight to watch.  Unfortunately the multicultural makeup of the teams has revealed an ugly side of European soccer fans: 

Multiculturalism, of course, is the bête noire (pun intended) of the racist far right that loves to drape itself in national flags, conjuring up fantasies of racial purity, sometimes with murderous consequences, as in the case of Norwegian killer Anders Breivik. And it's precisely because football represents the most multicultural reflection of an evolving European identity that the game is also a magnet for toxic racism.

Despite the success (so far) of the German team, there have been racist remarks against team members of non-German ethnic backgrounds.  Some of the most hateful comments have been directed at Mesut Özil, who was born in Germany,  but whose family comes from Turkey.  Özil and his father, however, have decided take action:  

MUNICH - Mesut Ozil’s management has registered complaints against persons unknown for racist remarks made through social network Twitter.

Ozil’s advisor Roland Eitel on Tuesday said that the move is designed to deter others from similar action. Ozil’s father said that he wants the person(s) to be identified.

Tweets in which Ozil was the target of racist statements occurred during Germany’s last Uefa Euro 2012 group game against Denmark. The user tweeted that Ozil was no real German and that the national team should only consist of players with German names.

Ozil is of Turkish descent and was born in Germany. News reports said the profile was started under the name @PiratenOnline. The name appeared to misuse the big Internet presence of Germany’s Pirates Party, which said it had nothing to do with the tweets and distanced itself from them.

Twitter reportedly closed the account after some 3 000 tweets and protests from other users.

But the abuse doesn't end there.  The völkisch-national weekly paper Junge Freiheit heaps scorn on Mesut Özil and his father, noting that while Mesut may technically be a German citizen (Staatsangehörigkeit), he is alien to the German Volk (Volkszugehörigkeit).  One gets the sense that the right-wing editors at Junge Freiheit and its neo-Nazi friends would much rather have a racially pure losing team than a winning multicultural team. 

Comments

[koogleschreiber]

I am not a soccer fan, all in all I haven't seen more than 20 minutes of the Euro 2012. Generally, this sport is too boring for me, but most of all, I feel disgust watching and hearing tenthousands of individuals transform into a stupid mass, bellowing primitive songs and insults. Large areas of a soccer stadium are no-go-areas for cultivated people or people with kids. And, before and after the match thousands of policemen are required to escort these hords through the streets to prevent them from demolitions and mass brawls. Though soccer officials pretend to declare those are not soccer fans, reality is different: Soccer is a replacement war, the enemy is dehumanized, let the lower instincts rule you, let'em out in the safe anonymity of a large mass. That's soccer. Bread and games, or, Hartz4 and games. No surprise even racism rears up its ugly head under these circumstances.

Why does that appear a phenomenon only of soccer? Not of basket ball, ice hockey or hand ball? In comparison, soccer is a slow game, matches often ending without any goal, leaving the spectators frustrated without any successful experience. Homo ludens, the player in us all, however, seeks quickly repeating successes and we rather accept a supreme guest team or the surprise victory of an outsider than two teams making only one or no goal in a match driven by tactics in 90 minutes. No surprise the bored spactators would find other ways to amuse themselves.

[David]

@koogelschreiber,

I refuse to let the disgusting behavior of some racists detract from my enjoyment of the sport.

I watched the quarterfinal and really had no interest in the outcome. But the play of Cristiano Ronaldo was a thing of beauty.

[Jake]

About Mesut Özil, also in the Stern: http://www.stern.de/sport/fussball-em/em-2012/strafanzeige-oezil-wehrt-sich-gegen-rassistische-hetze-1842815.html

And realy ugly agains Mesut, it gets on PI: http://www.pi-news.net/2012/06/patriotismus-fusball-fahne-geist-hymne
(sorry for browning up your Screen) written by the Leader of the Bavarian Brench of the Party 'Die Freiheit'(and former Local/Bavarian-CDU-Pressspeaker), Michael Stuerzenberger.

The Politblogger already contacted Özils Management about it. http://www.politblogger.eu/pi-sturzenberger-es-war-ja-nicht-alles-schlecht-beim-adolf/

If they deside to hit him vor this, he will be in more Trouble he's already in, as two Lawsuits pending agains him because Hatespeech/Volksverhetzung etc.

Ugly enough, this kind of People/ selfannounced 'Journalists/Politicians' roam with their brownish Rassism nearly undisturbed throughout Germany. Wehret den Anfaengen??

Gruss
Jake

[David]

@Jake,

Thanks for your comments. Politically Incorrect is a despicable hate blog. Unfortunately, it is hosted on servers in the United States (Liquid Web in Lansing, Michigan).

[escort izmir]

19th Century, that was when good old Marx was getting drunk and riding around on a Donkey in Germany. I'm waiting for Socialism to take over. I want my Spreewald Pickles and Mocha Fix Gold coffee! Rebuild the wall! I want to live in Eastern Germany. I wont complain about the lack of choices.