During the draw for the UEFA Europa League on December 12, the Turkish team Besiktas was paired with Israeli Hapoel Beersheba football club. Many Turkish anti-Semites were quick to take to Twitter and spew their Jew-hatred, declaring how they will "f---" what they called "Jewish sperm," "Jewish dogs," "Jewish bastards," and "Jewish Israel." According to the Turkish news site Avlaremoz, which covers Jewish-related affairs, some of the tweets included:
Another Jew-hater referred to the so-called "gharqad" trees:
- "So we will f--- the Jewish sperm behind gharqad trees one by one-"
He was referring to a Hadith, a saying attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, which reads:
"Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the gharqad tree would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews."
Other users stated that this football match against a Jewish team would be like a Muslim war against Jews.
- "Get ready for World War IV. My Besiktas will play against the Jewish bastard Israeli team. There will be a bloodbath. Hapoel [Beer]Sheba."
- "Come on, Jewish bastards. Let us vomit our hatred on you."
- "Are you ready, Besiktas? This time you will walk up to the Jew."
- "Let's go to Israel and burn Jews for the love of Besiktas."
Also as a result of the drawing, the Turkish team Fenerbahce was paired with the Russian team Krasnodar and the Turkish team Osmanlispor was paired with Olympiakos from Greece. Some tweets included:
- "The World War has been taken to UEL draw. Turks against Greeks and Russians. And for us [Besiktas], we will face Jewish sperm. Let our ghazw [an Arabic word for religious warfare] be blessed."
- "We will face a Greek, Russian and Jewish team. National hatred, hell yeah!"
- "So we drew lots against what we call Greek sperm, [Russian] Moscow bastards and [Israeli] Jewish sperm. These lots resemble a declaration of war. Ya Allah!"
Some Twitter users were also talking about "beating up Jews in Jerusalem" and "killing Jews in Istanbul during the Besiktas match."
The first leg of the match will be played at Turner Stadium in Beersheba on February 16, 2017, while the return leg will be played at Vodafone Arena in Istanbul on February 23.
"Football is Never Just Football" -- that was how the title of Simon Kuper's 1994 book "Football Against the Enemy," was translated into Turkish in 1996.
This book's title has become a well-known slogan in Turkey. Indeed, football in Turkey is never just football. It is taken extremely seriously by millions of people. Moreover, to many Turks, football is also a declaration of war and violence against the opposing teams -- in this case, against Jews, Russians and Greeks -- as well as a proud expression of the widespread Turkish desire to murder or rape others for the "crime" of being Jewish.
Uzay Bulut is a Turkish journalist based in Washington, D.C.
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