Israeli football fans walk out after Muslim player scores.
Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2013 8:40 pm
Debut goal from Israeli football club's new Muslim signing sparks walk-out by hundreds of hardline fans
Chechen Muslim player Zaur Sadayev scored his first goal of the season.
Prompted walk out by anti-Muslim Beitar Jerusalem fans.
Fans have been thrown out of recent matches due to racist chants.
Hardcore nationalist fans of an Israeli football club left a stadium in protest following a goal from the side's newly signed Muslim striker.
Beitar Jerusalem player Zaur Sadayev, a 23-year-old Chechen Muslim, scored against opponents Maccabi Netanyar early in the second half of a match on Sunday.
Video footage of the game shows hundreds of Beitar fans walking out of the stadium in the minutes after Sadayev's goal at the club's home ground.
Those who left are understood to be among the club's hardcore supporters known as La Familia.
La Familia, which has a history of chanting anti-Islam slurs at games, reacted with fury when Beitar hired Sadayev along with another Muslim teammate, Gabriel Kadiev, in January.
They became two of only five non-Israeli footballers ever to play for the club, which is identified with Israel's political right.
Arabs, who make up about 20 per cent of Israel's population, now star on the Israeli national team and on every first division team besides Beitar.
But Beitar's officers were targeted in an apparent arson attack in the wake of its controversial hiring decision, prompting fears of growing anti-Arab racism among fans.
Both Sadayev and Kadiev have also been subjected to taunts from the stands.
A report in the Independent said the atmosphere at Sunday's game was tense throughout, and that Sadayev was booed every time he touched the ball during the first half.
But fans insisted the protest was not racist.
'It's not racism, they just shouldn't be here,' one fan, named as Jacob, told the newspaper.
'Beitar Jerusalem has always been a clean club, but now it's being destroyed - many of the other players are thinking of leaving because of the Muslim players being here,' he said.
Read more:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z2NBsrLPZG
Chechen Muslim player Zaur Sadayev scored his first goal of the season.
Prompted walk out by anti-Muslim Beitar Jerusalem fans.
Fans have been thrown out of recent matches due to racist chants.
Hardcore nationalist fans of an Israeli football club left a stadium in protest following a goal from the side's newly signed Muslim striker.
Beitar Jerusalem player Zaur Sadayev, a 23-year-old Chechen Muslim, scored against opponents Maccabi Netanyar early in the second half of a match on Sunday.
Video footage of the game shows hundreds of Beitar fans walking out of the stadium in the minutes after Sadayev's goal at the club's home ground.
Those who left are understood to be among the club's hardcore supporters known as La Familia.
La Familia, which has a history of chanting anti-Islam slurs at games, reacted with fury when Beitar hired Sadayev along with another Muslim teammate, Gabriel Kadiev, in January.
They became two of only five non-Israeli footballers ever to play for the club, which is identified with Israel's political right.
Arabs, who make up about 20 per cent of Israel's population, now star on the Israeli national team and on every first division team besides Beitar.
But Beitar's officers were targeted in an apparent arson attack in the wake of its controversial hiring decision, prompting fears of growing anti-Arab racism among fans.
Both Sadayev and Kadiev have also been subjected to taunts from the stands.
A report in the Independent said the atmosphere at Sunday's game was tense throughout, and that Sadayev was booed every time he touched the ball during the first half.
But fans insisted the protest was not racist.
'It's not racism, they just shouldn't be here,' one fan, named as Jacob, told the newspaper.
'Beitar Jerusalem has always been a clean club, but now it's being destroyed - many of the other players are thinking of leaving because of the Muslim players being here,' he said.
Read more:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z2NBsrLPZG
