The top-ranked football team in
Spain, Real Madrid, has removed a
Christian cross from its official logo as
a way to strengthen its fan base
among Muslims in Europe and the
Middle East. According to Spain's top sports
newspaper, Marca, the change was made to "avoid any form of confusion
or misinterpretation in a region where
the majority of the population is
Muslim." Real Madrid says its decision to
remove the cross from its logo (see
image here) is simply a cost of doing business in a globalized world. But
critics say the move represents yet
another erosion of European culture
and tradition in the face of
encroaching Islam. The cross controversy comes as Real
Madrid begins to build a $1 billion
sports tourist resort in the United
Arab Emirates. The foundation stone
for the 50 hectare Real Madrid Resort Island was laid in the emirate of Ras al-Khaimah on March 29; the complex
is scheduled to open in January 2015. Real Madrid says its resort island will
be the first theme park on an artificial
island to combine tourism and sports,
and it will be the first recreational
tourism complex built under the Real
Madrid trademark. The complex will include a 450-room luxury hotel,
luxury villas, a sporting harbor, and
the world's first-ever football stadium
that is open to the sea. According to Real Madrid, "This is a decisive and strategic step that will
enhance the strength of this
institution in the Middle East and Asia,
a key region in which the passion for
this club has been apparent. Real
Madrid and the Government of Ras al- Khaimah want to transmit the passion
of Real Madrid and what it means
throughout the world." As part of the agreement, however,
the ruler of Ras al-Khaimah, Sheikh
Saud Bin Saqr al Qasimi, required Real
Madrid to remove the cross from the
crown on its logo for all promotional
materials related to the resort island. The president of Real Madrid,
Florentino Pérez, dutifully complied. The cross was first to Real Madrid's
logo in 1920, when King Alfonso XIII
granted the club his royal patronage.
The word Real is Spanish for royal,
and the cross still forms an integral
part of the coat of arms of the King of Spain. To be sure, Real Madrid is not the first
Spanish football club to remove a
"religiously incorrect" cross from its
logo in an effort to appease Muslim
sensibilities. Some observers, in fact,
say Real Madrid's move is part of a concerted effort to prevent a rival
football team in Barcelona from
winning over the Middle East. FC Barcelona recently signed a five- year €150 million ($200 million) shirt
sponsorship deal with the Doha-
based Qatar Foundation, a so-called
charitable trust that has been accused
by the Spanish newspaper El Mundo of providing funding to the extremist
cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an advocate
of terrorism, wife beating and
murderous anti-Semitism. The
agreement permits the Qatar
Foundation to place its logo on FC Barcelona's official team shirt. In addition to earning €30 million per
season, the agreement has enabled
FC Barcelona -- which claims to be
"the undisputed brand leader in
world football" -- to expand its
influence throughout the Middle East. FC Barcelona's public relations efforts
in the Muslim world have not been
without controversy. Like Real Madrid,
FC Barcelona has a cross in its official
logo. But after Saudi Arabia
complained that the so-called Cruz de San Jorge -- a red and white cross that forms an integral part of FC
Barcelona's logo -- was offensive to
Islam because it evokes memories of
the medieval Crusades, the horizontal
line (and thus the offending cross)
was removed from all FC Barcelona shirts sold in the Middle East. Football clubs in Italy have also had
run-ins with Muslim fashion police. In
Milan, for example, the football team
Inter Milan was sued by a Turkish
lawyer named Baris Kaska. He filed a
complaint with the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) against
Inter Milan after the team wore shirts
with a "Crusader-style" red cross that
Kaska alleged was "offensive to
Muslim sensibilities." The shirt's design -- to mark the
100th anniversary of the club --
included a big red cross on a white
background, a symbol of the city of
Milan. But Muslims said the emblem
reminded them of the Knights Templar, which Kaska said symbolized "Western racist
superiority over Islam." In an interview with the Barcelona-
based newspaper La Vanguardia, Kaska said Inter Milan had
"manifested in the most explicit
manner the superiority of one religion
over another." He also said that Inter
should be "heavily fined for
displaying an offensive symbol." In neighboring Germany, the
Gelsenkirchen-based FC Schalke 04,
which plays in Germany's top league,
the Bundesliga, asked an Islam
expert to consider whether the
team's anthem is insulting to Muslims. The third verse of the anthem, which
is titled "Blue and White, How I Love You," contains the words: "Mohammed was a prophet who
understood nothing about football.
But of all the lovely colors he chose
[Schalke's] blue and white." Although the song was written in
1924, the football team began
receiving complaints -- hundreds of
them -- after a Turkish newspaper
reported that the song is insulting to
Mohammed. Muslims are now demanding that the offending line be
struck from the song, which is
chanted by Schalke's fans before
every match. Elsewhere in Germany, the German
Central Council of Muslims issued a
fatwa (religious ruling) stating that
Muslim football players are not required to fast during the month of Ramadan. The ruling was issued after the
German football club FSV Frankfurt
issued an official warning to three of
their players for fasting and failing to
tell their manager. The club said
fasting harms the performance of its players. In France, the referee of a woman's football match on March 18 in the southern French city of Narbonne
refused to officiate the game when
players for one of the teams took to
the pitch wearing Muslim
headscarves. The incident involved
players from Petit-Bard Montpellier, who had been due to play Narbonne
in a regional promotional tie. The international governing body of
football, known as FIFA, banned
players from wearing the Islamic
headscarf, also known as the hijab, in
2007, saying it was unsafe. But on
March 3, FIFA accepted in principal that female footballers could wear headscarves when playing in official competitions. The rule change, instigated by the
brother of the King of Jordan, Ali bin
al-Hussein who is also FIFA vice
president, is due to come into effect
on July 2. FIFA secretary general, Jerome Vacke,
says al-Hussein successfully
convinced FIFA that the hijab is a
cultural rather than a religious
symbol, and that the rule change will
allow women all over the world to play football. But the change has
angered many Europeans, including
some feminist groups, who say the
Muslim headscarf is a sign of "male
domination." In an interview with the French
newspaper Le Parisien, Asma Guenifi, the director of a women's rights
group called Ni Putes, Ni Soumises,
said the rule change is "a total
regression." She added: "I think FIFA
is influenced by intense lobbying
from rich Middle Eastern countries, like Qatar."

Good Move Tho

One reason they may not want to come out with is the fear of muslims antics. The evil spirit of islam may enter into them and make the club a target for terrorist attack. Don't forget that islam is synonymous to terror.

I read and read and got tired of reading, so i bookmarked d page to continue reading when i regain the spent strength

Well, I have nothing against Islam. I feel there's nothing wrong in a group to lobby against what is offensive to them.

danot1030: One reason they may not want to come out with is the fear of muslims antics. The evil spirit of islam may enter into them and make the club a target for terrorist attack. Don't forget that islam is synonymous to terror.

Most senseless comment on this thread.

Europe is what is it as a result of liberal Christian values.

The useless career politicians and their politically correct b.s. portfolio of multiculturalism are the reason for Europe demise.

Europe has become more anti-Jewish because of the influx of illiterate bigot arab muslims who are destroying the fabric of a liberal society.

[img]http://www.asianews.it/files/img/UK_-_Hamza.jpg[/img]

Look at these fools

eluquenson: Most senseless comment on this thread.

truth is always difficult to accept.

I will comment later

Haters will always diss what's not favorable to them. Islam is a religion of principle whch doesn't compromise it's values. The owners of real madrid are businessmen who want to appeal to their target customers, were they forced by muslims to remove the cross? No! So if u have a problem that islam is still growing regardless of the global islamophobic attacks against muslims, you can go ahead and take a bottle of acid so that you'd be put out of ur misery.