CAIRO: As Egypt lost to Algeria in Sudan last Wednesday, ending Egypt`s chances to qualify for the World Cup next year in South Africa, the events that followed the match, including the alleged violence sparked between both sides in Sudan, resulted in a war of words, media tension and diplomatic crisis between the two Arab countries. The match became the hot topic and issue for Egyptian newspapers and TV channels.

Most columnists focused on the hatred and tension that sparked between the two nations and accused the media of spurring “hostile emotions between fans.”

Saeed Shoe’ib wrote in his al-Youm al-Saba’a column quoting his friend Youssef Ayoub, who said that he faced death in Sudan – being attacked by the Algerian fans. Shoe’ib wrote “Ayoub was unarmed in the face of armed gangs of hooligans and despite that he did not fall in the trap of judging all Algerians that they are like these gangs,” adding that “Ayoub told me that his Algerian friends contacted him to check on him, which means, although he saw death with his own eyes, he still refuses to accuse all the Algerian people of being ‘thugs’ or ‘barbarians’. He refuses these ugly racial descriptions.”

Shoeib continued: “Therefore, I agree with my friend, advisor Hossam Mekawi, who decided to file a lawsuit against FIFA to restore the dignity of the Egyptians that was humiliated by some Algerians, since the law of international organizations includes penalties for individuals, corporations and governments, and we have an abundance of evidence that might guarantee a penalty as a deterrent to racists who caused the incidence of racial discrimination, violence and hatred.”

He argued, “not to mention that this should not drag Egyptians into the trap of being racists and bigots in the press and media, and I think, we need to hold those who made mistakes on both sides accountable through the institutions in charge, such as the Arab Journalists Union and the Arab States Broadcasting Union, even if the punishment were simply moral.”

He also considered severing diplomatic relations and boycotting Algerians culturally as a collective punishment, saying Algeria was “not fit for a great and civilized country such as Egypt, which has to be more civilized than its opponents, as we can’t solve the problem with the saw used by who caused it.”

Emad Eldin Hussein wrote about Egyptian media, especially the official Egyptian media, in his al-Shorouk column, of being responsible for the escalation that followed the match on Wednesday, saying that the state-owned media has always “accused and criticized Palestinians with all true and false charges whenever the Egyptian government disagreed with them. The same thing happened with Syria and its President, and before that with Libya, and with each country that disagreed with the Egyptian government, and now the media repeats the same thing with Algeria, but in a way that is even worse.”

He continued, writing that “again, the Algerians have made a mistake and committed crimes, and we also made the same mistakes, and we have to acknowledge that, we can’t just wipe out Algeria and its people from existence as the price of restoring our Egyptian dignity, as we do not know that there are many powers that mess with this issue, and the government tries to erupt a war between the two nations.”

He added: “to all innocent and naïve citizens and to all media: criticize as much as you want, but don’t turn all Algerians into ‘Satans’ and do not burn their flags or accuse them of being infidels, otherwise, we would be giving the same right for them to treat us the same way.

There is no country in the world, that all of its people could be called bad and evil. In each country there is the good and the bad,” added Hussein.

Hussein didn’t pass on the chance to discuss Israel within the current context. He said that “even in Israel, you can find a few of them who are good, and reject the aggression. How could we attack persons like Norm Chomsky, or Amnon Shahak, or Amira Hass, or all those who refuse the Zionist ideology and sided with Palestinians and left the occupied Palestinian territories!”

Tarek al-Shanawi, a prominent film critic, wrote in al-Dustour, critically of the Egyptian calls for a cultural and artistic boycott of Algeria, saying that “arts and culture have always been the deterrent weapon that stood against the Arab countries` boycott of Egypt in the wake of the Camp David peace treaty with Israel. Arab countries then boycotted Egypt at all levels – political, economic and culturally – but there was no boycott of Egyptian media, arts and entertainment. Even if there was an official boycott from the Arab governments, creativity cannot be breached under any case, as it is natural that relations between countries could become tense, due to differences in political orientations, but using the weapon of boycott is the worst, historically.”

BM

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