When the story first broke about the Iranian-born German soccer player who refused to travel to Israel to play, some rushed to attribute the worst motives to this young man.
I, on the other hand, displayed nothing less than superior understanding of this young man's predicament. :-)
(I grade myself on my own curve, dear reader; abject failure on numerous occasions has brought the bar comfortably low for this old fat guy.)
Nice to see I was right. A cosmopolitan young athlete with a stylish close-shaven head and an almost Miami Vice-like stubble is on first sight not a motivated Muslim, at least not a radical one. And he in fact was concerned primarily about the safety of family members back home in Iran, worried about the mad mullahs' response to his visit to the Jewish homeland.
I cannot say for sure that this young man does not harbor the fundie's antipathy toward Jews, but he has not expressed it, and such expression is usually not withheld by those of that persuasion.
The Germans have suspended him, and that is his consequence. It is a modern tragedy that this young man's bright career in Western sport should be so blighted by fear of retribution from the medieval mullahs so many miles away.
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