I’ve been observing the case of the banning of away fans for the upcoming Aston Villa and Maccabi Tel Aviv match with increasing concern. It is clearly an example of the state, in particular police forces such as those in the West Midlands, capitulating to Islamic extremists who have campaigned for the Maccabi Tel Aviv (MTV) fans to be banned from attending this match.
I really don’t buy the excuses and bullshit put out by West Midlands Police regarding the past conduct of MTV fans at other matches. Sure, this team’s fans have their Ultras, the real hooligan headcases, but they are very small in number from what I can gather when compared to other Israeli teams and teams from Britain and elsewhere. Latching onto a prior incident in the Netherlands where MTV fans were allegedly involved in violence won’t fly either because we know from copious media and social media coverage that what happened there was the MTV fans in general, not the Ultras in particular, were attacked by ‘locals’. These ‘locals’ were Moslems many of them engaged on what they called a ‘Jew hunt’ among the MTV fans. As someone who grew up in a time when football hooliganism in the UK was at its peak, I could clearly see that in the Netherlands the MTV fans were much more sinned against than were sinners themselves.
Another reason I don’t buy the police and Islamist activists claims of potential hooliganism is that Britain, due to its previous major problems with football hooliganism, is extremely skilled at managing football related trouble. There were many different options that the West Midlands Police could have facilitated this match and done more to have facilitated the presence of MTV fans. The match could have been moved to a neutral ground instead of Villa’s ground or West Midlands Police could have done what forces often do when there’s a big contentious football match and call in support from neighbouring forces. Another more serious option that could have been chosen by the police and football authorities would have been to play the match behind closed doors. There is a strong precedent for this from the 1980’s when numerous teams had to play without spectators because of hooliganism or the aftermath of hooligan related disasters such as Heysel.
Because there are ways and means of managing contentious football matches and their fans that are already well established and which could have been applied here, there was no real need to ban MTV fans from attending this match either at Villa’s ground or some other more neutral ground. Despite the police’s denials that they’ve caved into threats of violence from Islamist elements among the Moslems of the Midlands, this is what it looks like to everyone else. It looks for all the world as if the Islamist, Jew hating elements in the local Moslem community implied that there would be a negative reaction from local Moslems over the presence of mostly Jewish MTV fans.
The correct response from West Midlands Police would have been to have told the agitating Islamic ‘community leaders’ that they would facilitate the presence of the MTV fans but do everything to ensure the safety of everyone else. It’s not beyond the wit of man or Chief Constable to be able to do this. There’s a long history in the UK of police heavily policing football fans in order that there’s no public disorder and the negative affects to the general public are reduced to a minimum. However West Midlands Police did not do that and to be frank I’m not at all surprised. West Midlands Police has a long and ignominious record of pandering to minority groups and specifically pandering to elements among their area’s Moslem community. This is a force after all that has faced allegations that they have not properly targeted the sort of sex crimes where Moslems have been overrepresented such as Grooming Gangs, has had a former Chief Constable who said that he was ‘relaxed’ about the idea of policewomen wearing burkhas, that has allegedly soft pedalled with investigations about female genital mutilation and which prosecuted a Middlesborough football fan for ripping up his own copy of a Koran. West Midlands Police are not a force that would cause the word ‘impartiality’ to immediately leap into my mind. Don’t get me wrong, there’s probably many West Midland’s Police more junior officers who are decent and just want to do the best for their area but the management of West Midlands Police are a different kettle of fish. It is the management of West Midlands Police that have engaged in turning the Islamopandering up to 11, the management who have allegedly allowed rabid Jew haters and Islamist adjacent individuals to act as advisors and influence policing policy and it is the management of West Midlands Police that have allowed and encouraged their force to become overtly politicised.
The decision by West Midlands Police to impose what is effectively an Islam-inspired ‘Jew ban’ has not gone without either notice or criticism. There has been copious criticism of this decision online from both Jews and non-Jews alike. The ban has even been criticised by Sir Keir Starmer the Prime Minister in a statement that even those who have a multitude of good reasons to loathe Starmer have welcomed. There are also rumours flying around that the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and other Cabinet members knew of this ban before the Prime Minister did which if true could be politically explosive as well as setting off all manner of speculations about who knew what and when and why was nothing said.
Lord Ian Austin of Dudley a former Labour MP and opponent of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has also quite pungently weighed in on this ban. The commentator Habibi has quoted on X Lord Austin as saying that "It is time we stood up for democracy, equality, freedom, fairness and tolerance – and tell anyone who disagrees with these values to feel free to go and live elsewhere." Lord Austin criticised "the abysmal decision of West Midlands Police to ban Jewish fans from attending their team’s game. It should be a wake-up call for our country – and we have a duty to do something about it." According to Habibi Lord Austin added that Lord Austin had found out that when he (Lord Austin) criticised Hamas for being an ‘Islamist death cult’ he was investigated by West Midlands Police for a ‘non crime hate incident’. However Lord Austin alleged that he was told by senior police officer that that didn’t happen as the rules had been changed. Just think about what that means for a moment. It means that West Midlands Police were going to slap a note of concern on the record of a Peer of the Realm merely because local Moslems or Islamopanderers within West Midlands Police didn’t like him telling the truth and calling an Islamist death cult an Islamist death cult.
Whatever way West Midlands Police may want to spin this story they will not be able to get away from the accusation that they pandered to violent elements in their local Moslem population and banned fans who would have naturally been majority Jewish from attending this football match. This whole story and West Midlands Police’s involvement in it stinks to high heaven.
I believe that the ban should be overturned by the Home Secretary and additional policing assistance should be sent to the West Midlands Police area in order to facilitate this match and facilitate the MTV fans being there. To not do that and to keep the ban in place will not only embolden the sort of Islamic radicals that are a threat to all of us, not just Jews, but will also cement further in the mind of the general public that the idea that Britain is not being governed or policed in an equitable or fair manner. Keeping the ban will surely and irrevocably show the British people just whose side the Government is on and it will be clear that it’s not our side but instead on the side of the radical extremists that should never ever be pandered to. This ban is shameful and must be overturned.
Links
Matches played behind closed doors.
https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/europe-travel/on-the-quiet-matches-behind-closed-doors-lrzsd6zrrfj
Habibi quoting Lord Austin
Some West Midlands stories from another place
West Midlands Police’s area may be a massive can of Islamic Grooming Gang worms
West Midlands Police turn the Islamopandering up to 11 and arrest a Middlesbrough fan for ripping up his own copy of a Koran
Possible selective enforcement of law against FGM in WMP