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.