Honour the Other

By John Cheeran
Terrorist is the most infamous or most familiar word now.
Terrorist is the name of the new John Updike novel that tackles the modern plague head on. And terrorist is the choicest abuse among footballers as was proved during the World Cup in Germany.
French football icon Zinedine Zidane was abused by Italian Materazzi as "son of a terrorist whore." Just the other day, Dean Jones, the former Aussie cricketer and now a television commentator lost his job for describing South African cricketer Hashim Amla a terrorist.
Both Materazzi's and Jones' remarks attained severity since it was directed at Muslims. Zinedine Zidane and Hashim Amla are Muslims though it is debatable how devout Zidane is.
To be a Muslim and be branded a terrorist for keeping a beard is no joke in this surcharged times. It, really, is bad to be at the receiving end of such prejudice and racial slur.
Though everyone is free to pursue his or her private agenda, it is better to honour your rivals. It is not just sheer coincidence that two great games -- cricket and football --are afflicted by the terrorist sound bytes with in a short span of one month. It is a reminder of the world beyond the boundaries of sport.
Sport often embraces religion for success on the field and that can be construed as the positive influence of faith. But one man's faith does not leave enough space for the other. It leads to intolerance, it leads to strife.
It is high time players and commentators become aware of the susceptibilities of those around us and stick to the rules of the game.