Am I a bigot?...



I would hope not, although the way I view anything in life
is indubitably coloured by my passions & beliefs. We all
have the capacity to be bigoted; When reason is overrun
by passion; when fairplay & humanity take second place to
what we believe in, we become bigoted. Misplaced beliefs,
jingoism & hatred are all facets of bigotry that seem to
thrive in the sporting arena & from a Scottish perspective,
thrive in the matches between Celtic & Rangers.

I am a passionate Celtic supporter. I have a healthy disdain
for Rangers & always will have. There is nothing unhealthy
in this; it is repeated by sets of supporters throughout the
land. It becomes ugly with the introduction of religion and
racial vilification. These are the foundations of bigotry &
sectarianism. I have no doubt that through the years both
teams & sets of fans have been guilty of bigotry, although
with Rangers, in my opinion, it seems to permeate into the
actual fabric of the club as opposed to being something
that is relegated to the terraces .

Several incidents in the last few years ranging from

Donald Findlay singing sectarian songs, Rangers

player Bob Malcolm signing an autograph with the

epithet 'FTP' - fuck the pope, the controversial

Orange away strip, Andy Goram provoking outrage

when he sported a black armband in the week that

loyalist terrorist Billy Wright was killed, Gascoigne

mimicking a loyalist flute player while warming up, etc.

I'm going on a bit but you get the idea. The Ibrox club
seems to be loath to criticise or suitably discipline the
offenders. In the enlightened PC world in which Celtic &
Rangers now operate, I would have thought the incident
with Bob Malcolm was serious enough for him to have his
contract torn up - anything less is nothing short of a pat on

the back - a fine that amounts to a fraction of his weekly

wage is not an acceptable punishment.

What has brought on this vitriolic attack on Rangers?

I was absolutely disgusted with the treatment dished
out to Neil Lennon in Saturdays Old Firm match. In a
week that has brought outrage at the racist displays
by the Spanish fans, would it not be in keeping with
this deserved outrage to remind everyone that being
Anti-Irish is also racist & equally abhorrent?

'Irish Bashing' is too readily accepted in Scotland
& has been for Centuries. Not a joke. The abuse that
Lennon takes is so out of proportion that anybody who
tries to apportion the blame on the player himself is,
unwittingly or otherwise, part of the malaise that has
been prevalent in Scottish culture for so long that the
perpetrators are amazed when such accusations are
levelled at them.

When the actions of Martin O'Neill are soundly comdemned
by the press & have the rest of the general populus reaching
for pen & paper or the nearest telephone, but the fact that

convicted bigot Malcolm in a moment of sectarian hatred

jumps up & gives the finger to the Celtic fans is trivialised as
'Silly Laddie' stuff, then I believe we have a problem. It
belies the idea that is firmly planted in the heads of the
Scottish people; anything Irish is subversive. As long as
Malcolm stays on the payroll at ibrox, the Rangers hierarchy
are not only condoning sectarianism - they are nurturing it.

In a week where racial villefication on the football field has
been headline news worldwide, maybe it's time for the SFA to
look seriously at the treatment Neil Lennon receives all over

Foreign Correspondent at 10:24 pm