An Arabs Cup Tournament Where Non-Arabs Win
By Ahmed Assid. Orignal publication in Arabic. Translated by Maghreb Magazine.
Amazigh, Kurds, Copts, Blacks, Assyrians and other nationalities on the map of North Africa and the Middle East do not agree with the designation “The Cup of Arabs” which the Gulf Arabs gave to the league currently organized in Qatar. I say the Arabs of the Gulf because “FIFA” did not call the cup the “Cup of Arabs”, but rather named it the Arab Cup, or in French ” La coupe Arabe”,. But our Arab brothers (Al-Aqhah), the people of the desert island, decided to call it the “Cup of Arabs” to celebrate their race, origins and “lineages”, without caring about the feelings of other peoples, nor the contradiction of the name with the soul of the world sports of football. The names of the many cups across the world are given on the basis of geography, not ethnic; such as “African Cup”, “European Cup”, “South American Cup”, “Asian Cup”, “World Cup”, etc.
Since this is the first race-based cup to be held in a country in the world, the organizers should have done a careful analysis of their DNA before receiving the teams to ensure their pure “Arabness”, for whoever did not prove his Arabness will be prevented from participating in the competition. We believe that the reason for the organizers’ failure to take this precautionary measure is their certainty that it will be difficult to find a single “Arab” player, as it was long established in history the crossing between people for centuries. This would have alerted the organizers to be careful in the names that should be taken into account that agree with logic.
We understand that the Arabs are sensitive about their origins and “lineages”, and they are the ones who were fascinated with their desert-like culture with a pure lineage, and have wrote abundant books about it. This completely contrary to the adherence of the Kurds or Amazigh and other peoples to their languages and their ancient cultural peculiarities, which is a noble cause that cannot be considered justification for a tendency towards the isolating the ethnicity of the identities of peoples. The time of the ideology of “Arab nationalism” that was marked by ethnic extremism that led to its insanity is over, and history has done justice to the components of the various countries through a process of gradual recognition (after an ideological struggle, an intellectual dialogue and a cultural scramble that lasted for decades) this recognition Which today has acquired a legal and political character that has been entrenched in awareness, behavior and institutional work, and can no longer be denied.
The mistake of ethnic naming is shared by the countries of the Gulf (which, according to the logic of land and geography, have the right to monopolize the epithet of Arabism) and the countries of North Africa and the Middle East that accepted this distortion. This seems strange and indigestible to the peoples of the region. The Moroccan Football Royal Federation was not forced to accept a designation that contradicts the country’s constitution, and the same about the Algerian Football Federation and the Tunisian Federation. Unless the Maghreb Federations decide – if they are able to do so – to send to participate in the Arab Cup only players with proven pure “Arabism”. Then they participate to represent the “Arabs of the Maghreb” along their brothers “Arabs Al-Mashareq”
The “Arab Cup” is a racist, reductionist term that does not include any respect for the peoples of the region. These have their different identities, cultures and languages that have received international and even constitutional recognition in the countries of the region themselves. They are not ready to abandon them in order to satisfy ideological whims that leads only to conflict. In order not to be nihilists, we can suggest other balanced labels for this nascent cup, like the North African and Middle East Cup, for example.
In the event that our Arab brothers of the Gulf are not satisfied and insist on using the word “Arab”, they can name their cup by a geographical name, “The Arabian Peninsula Cup”, and in this case it will not be binding on others.
And it seems after the matches that have been played so far, the so-called “Arab Cup” will not be won by the “Arabs” in the end. But will be likely won by of the “Ajam” (non-Arabs) of North Africa. After all, the Arabs are still fascinated by titles, the culture of “Dahes and Al-Ghabra”, the tradition of pride and enthusiasm for lineage superiority. And did not care about the art of football after all.