[Mb-civic] Soccer: We're No Symbol of Freedom, Iraq Coach Says

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

Soccer: We're No Symbol of Freedom, Iraq Coach Says 
By Ellie Tzortzi
Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=sportsNews&storyID=604431
8
Monday 23 August 2004

THESSALONIKI, Greece (Reuters) - Iraq's Olympic soccer coach said 
Monday his side should not be seen as a symbol of freedom, taking issue 
with a campaign commercial for President Bush.

The flags of Iraq and Afghanistan appear in a commercial as part of Bush's 
drive for re-election in November. A narrator says: "At this Olympics there will 
be two more free nations -- and two fewer terrorist regimes."

But coach Adnan Hamad said Iraq, still plagued by violence daily, remained a 
country under occupation.
"You cannot speak about a team that represents freedom. We do not have 
freedom in Iraq, we have an occupying force. This is one of our most 
miserable times," he said.

"Freedom is just a word for the media. We are living in hard times, under 
occupation."
The Iraqi men's soccer side has been one of the surprises of the Olympics, 
reaching the semifinals of the competition. They play Paraguay Tuesday for a 
place in the final.

But their success has been overshadowed in the past few days by rows over 
the commercial for Bush, who went to war and ousted Iraq's Saddam 
Hussein last year.

Although Washington has officially handed power to an Iraqi interim 
government, more than 130,000 American soldiers remain in the country, 
battling with insurgents from various factions. Western officials also hold key 
positions behind the scenes.

"We want to give our people a cause to celebrate, to forget their problems," 
Hamad told reporters in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, the venue 
for Tuesday's match. 

After Sports Illustrated magazine quoted Iraqi team members expressing 
outrage at the Bush ad, a British adviser to the Iraqi Olympic committee 
accused journalists of taking advantage of players' naivete and said sport 
should not be politicized.

But Hamad said: "One cannot separate politics and sport because of the 
situation in the country right now."
He said the violence which continues to afflict Iraq, more than a year after 
Bush declared major combat there was over, meant the team could not fully 
enjoy its success.

"To be honest with you, even our happiness at winning is not happiness 
because we are worried about the problems in Iraq, all the daily problems 
that our people face back home, so to tell you the truth, we are not really 
happy," he said. 

The International Olympic Committee said it had not been in touch with the 
Bush campaign about its use of the Games in the commercial. National 
Olympic committees own the rights to the Olympic name and symbols in their 
countries, a spokeswoman said


***


Senior Muslim figures back Iraqi insurgents. 
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200408/s1182542.htm
Monday, August 23, 2004. 6:14am (AEST)
Ninety-three prominent Muslim figures opposed to US troops in Iraq have 
called on Muslims around the world to support resistance to US forces and to 
the Iraqi government installed in June. 
In the appeal received on Sunday from the offices of Egypt's Muslim 
Brotherhood, the Muslim figures from nearly 30 nations, from Germany to 
Indonesia, said the aim should be to "purify the land of Islam from the filth of 
occupation". 
The statement came as US tanks rumbled to within 800 metres of a holy 
shrine in the Iraqi city of Najaf, after fierce clashes with Shiite rebels in a 
nearby town reportedly killed at least 40 Iraqis. 
Talks to end a near three-week Shiite Muslim uprising led by rebel cleric 
Moqtada al-Sadr appeared to have stalled after negotiators failed to agree on 
how to surrender control of the Imam Ali shrine, where Mehdi militias remain 
holed up. 
The signatories included senior members of the Brotherhood, leading Qatari-
based moderate Youssef al-Qaradawi, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan 
Nasrallah of Lebanon, Khaled Mashal of the Palestinian group Hamas, two 
Egyptian opposition party leaders, Sheikh Abdeslam Yassine of Morocco's 
Justice and Charity Group and Yemeni Speaker of Parliament Sheikh 
Abdullah al-Ahmar. 
Others came from Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bosnia, the Comoros, 
Germany, India, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Malaysia, Mauritania, Pakistan, 
Saudi Arabia, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan and 
Tunisia. 
The appeal said that Muslim rulers had been silent to the point of complicity 
in the face of what it called Anglo-American and Zionist aggression in Iraq 
and the Palestinian territories. 
"(The signatories) call on our Arab and Muslim peoples and all religious 
authorities and liberation forces everywhere to oppose the occupation and 
savage crimes in Iraq and Palestine, by providing all kinds of material and 
moral support to the honourable resistance ... until God's victory comes," it 
said. 
The statement called the Iraqi government "subordinate and installed, a mere 
shadow of the occupation, designed to impose hegemony on Iraq and its 
resources." 
The signatories called for democracy throughout the Muslim world through 
free and fair elections, with respect for pluralism and the dignity of citizens. 
-- Reuters

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