The Null Device

Age-old sectarian enmities, passed down from generation to generation, have found a home in ethnic soccer clubs in Australia. During the 1990s, Serbian and Croatian fans would riot during games, and sometimes vandalise or torch the rivals' soccer clubs; then the authorities stepped in and banned clubs from advertising ethnic affiliation, forcing these traditions underground. Recently, a Serbian player has been accused of making a three-fingered salute at Bosnian Muslims during a match, starting a riot. He initially denied it and then claimed that the salute was an innocuous "Christian Orthodox salute". An Islamic group is claiming that the salute refers to the Serbian practice of amputating Muslims' fingers, as practiced during the Bosnian conflict.

Soccer isn't the only place where such ancient hatreds are revived by new generations of tribal warriors; a predominantly Greek graffiti gang in Melbourne has been spraying "DEATH TO TURKS" on walls next to their tags. Given the popularity of hip-hop culture among second-generation ethnic youth, I wonder how long it is until we have ethnic-Australian rap groups bustin' rhymes about their ancestral enemies' historical atrocities and how it's payback time.

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