West Brom suspend Anelka

bwfc1874 wrote:Fair enough, but equally I'd say you have a tendency to defend racism and say it's just Political Correctness gone mad or people being over sensitive.

Im afraid. 90% of the time it is.

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Not got the time to verify all these claims, but il be honest, non of them surprise me.

Point I'm making is different.

The FA say it wasn't motivated by discrimination of any sort. They ruled that he made the gesture innocently.
So the question is are we responsible for the consequences of our actions even if we don't intend to cause offence by them? The FA seem to think so but I think that's not in keeping with English Law. If someone is mentally ill and they stab someone then courts recognise that there was no premeditation i.e. diminished responsibility. If the ruling was that Anelka's actions weren't motivated by anti-semitism, shouldn't the same principle apply?

I don't understand what musical chairs has got to do with "political correctness" 

yet again "health and safety" and "political correctness" have been confused.

If you take anything the Mail writes seriously then I'm not surprised you moan about everything Rebel.

The FA didn't find him guilty of anti semitism because they can't conclusively prove what he was intending. Just like John Terry couldn't get charged by the crown court.

It's not a case of a couple of people getting offended, he made a Nazi salute I've no idea what you expect the FA to do other than charge him.

bwfc1874 wrote:If you take anything the Mail writes seriously then I'm not surprised you moan about everything Rebel.

The FA didn't find him guilty of anti semitism because they can't conclusively prove what he was intending. Just like John Terry couldn't get charged by the crown court.

It's not a case of a couple of people getting offended, he made a Nazi salute I've no idea what you expect the FA to do other than charge him.

But it wasn't a Nazi salute although some people have chosen to interpret it that way. It was an "up yours" or specifically an "up your ass" gesture.

My understanding is that it's an anti-establishment gesture in which the establishment is characterised as Zionism in the same way that the Rastas portray the establishment as Zion. 
Even mainstream reggae artists like Marley wrote about Zion in this context, let alone the likes of I-Roy, Big Youth and others. Even really old school performers like the Upsetters reference Zion as "the establishment."

I think Anelka just thought he was being subversive in a teenage kind of way.
The guy who came up with it is obviously a twat, but he did originally employ the gesture as an "up yours" comment on French secularism in general.

That font of knowledge, Wiki says:
[size=12.727272033691406]Each year, the "Golden Quenelle"[/size][size=12.727272033691406] is given, in a parody of the Oscar ceremony [/size][size=12.727272033691406]to the people who have expressed the most anti-establishment views.[/size]

I think it was Anelka's Citizen Smith "Free Tooting" moment. Pathetic, but likely.

Possibly Lust but the connotations of the gesture - which is based on a Nazi salute, are widely known in France. Even if he meant it as an anti-etablishment gesture it's irrelevant he knows full well the offence it would cause, not for a second do I believe he's so naive that he didn't.

bwfc1874 wrote:Possibly Lust but the connotations of the gesture - which is based on a Nazi salute, are widely known in France. Even if he meant it as an anti-etablishment gesture it's irrelevant he knows full well the offence it would cause, not for a second do I believe he's so naive that he didn't.

Perhaps he knew - but that's irrelevant as the FA ruled it wasn't motivated by anti-semitism.

wanderlust wrote:My understanding is that it's an anti-establishment gesture in which the establishment is characterised as Zionism in the same way that the Rastas portray the establishment as Zion. 
Even mainstream reggae artists like Marley wrote about Zion in this context, let alone the likes of I-Roy, Big Youth and others. Even really old school performers like the Upsetters reference Zion as "the establishment."

You may be confusing "Zion" with "Babylon". "Babylon" is the 'Establishment' while "Zion" is to be aspired to. Then again, what do I know?   

"Possibly Lust but the connotations of the gesture - which is based on a Nazi salute, are widely known in France. Even if he meant it as an anti-etablishment gesture it's irrelevant he knows full well the offence it would cause, not for a second do I believe he's so naive that he didn't."

Absolutely spot on mate.

Anelka DID actually break the law if he meant it as an anti-semitic gesture. Incitement to racial hatred is a crime. Even if he didn't it was still "likely to cause offence", something the FA crack down on hard. In a way I think he was quite lucky, lest we forget Suarez got a longer ban (eight matches I think) for calling Evra a racist name, Terry was banned by the FA after being found not guilty in criminal court for a similar offence to Suarez. 

In my personal opinion there is no way Anelka could have been ignorant of how the comedian himself has espoused anti-semitic views or how the gesture is perceived all over France and much of Europe. He fully deserved to be banned and if anything I believe the FA were somewhat lenient when compared to the sentences they handed out to other players for similar, perhaps even lesser offences.