Azeem Rafiq has apologised for using anti-Semitic slurs in an exchange of messages with another cricketer.
Rafiq admitted sending messages more than a decade ago in which he joked about a Derbyshire player, Atif Sheikh, being reluctant to spend money on a meal out because “he is a jew”.
“I am the victim of racism!”
“Oh aye?”
Of course, we’ll have to see how this fully plays out but rarely have we seen the wind spill out of the sails of a moral outrage quite so quickly. It’s like finding out that Jim Bakker was shagging the help while preaching the Bible….ah, see the problem with that one?
Time for a revival of Tom Lehrer’s “National Brotherhood Week” (except of course brotherhood is terribly patriarchal).
This revelation is presumably why the usual suspects have switched seamlessly to the horrible racist act of…wait, wearing blackface at a costume party eleven whole years ago?
Maybe the chap in question was going as the Canadian Prime Minister?
Seems he’s also had to apologise for a racist meme about Africans he shared too.
You can apologise away one mistake, but two becomes a pattern.
All this friendly banter or racial slur distinction has me very confused. Is calling someone a “Scouser” soon to be regarded as a slur, even if they do come from Liverpool?
So, some bloke won’t forgive people who, allegedly, used a term he found derogatory, but expects everyone to forgive him for using a term others found derogatory. Must be looking for a job. I would suggest the BBC or the Labour Party.
Wait until it’s found that he allegedly misgendered someone 20 years ago..
Oppression Olympics. The Jews have some good competitors, and can see off Whitey if needs be. But they haven’t actually won any medals for years.
Can anyone tell me why Israel didn’t bomb the Pakistani nuclear bomb programme in its early days? Fear of American disapproval?
Logistics. Even Baghdad was a stretch for the Israelis. To reach Balochistan would have required multiple in-flight refuellings in hostile airspaces. Plus the Pakistanis have a pretty good airforce (as the Indians keep finding out).
dearieme, I’ve always assumed that the Paki program had the tacit support of the US. After all, this was when the US was encouraging the Taliban to conduct guerrilla war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. And using Pakistan as a base.
After the Yank abandonment of South Vietnam, I’d imagine that the Pakis would have wanted some home grown support against Russian retaliation. And an Indian attack.
It’s the only instance that comes to mind where one can argue that the US actually supported someone else building nukes. After all, preventing others from building the things is one of the reasons for the US’s involvement in global politics.
Of course the Pakistani air force is pretty good. Grandpops helped set it up.
Not uncommon post-WWII, that retiring officers were sent out for one last gig setting up the militaries of newly independent countries….
Penseivat,
It was a bit more than a few hurry words, there was some quite nasty bullying.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2010/aug/04/azeem-rafiq-banned-twitter
BiND
The young man has quite a lot of baggage and is not the wide-eyed innocent portrayed by the media
I don’t see what the Pakistan airforce has to do with stopping an Israeli attack that isn’t delivered by aircraft. There’s more than one way to deliver a bomb.
In fact maybe their skill at assassination would have been all that was required if exercised in a timely way. I mean, the key stuff was stolen from Urenco by just one man.
Anyway, back to the topic. Is this another case of ‘the first man to play the race card is in the wrong’?
Dearieme
“Anyway, back to the topic. Is this another case of ‘the first man to play the race card is in the wrong’?”
He who smelt it, delt it.
Any chance of Yorkshire CCC attempting to recover Azeem’s prize money, I mean compensation? Or is the six-figure sum already in his account?