That rampant racism is an ever-present factor in Ukraine is well-known to followers of football. Only last month FIFA ordered Ukraine to play their next World Cup qualifier (against Poland) behind closed doors following racist behaviour by their fans – monkey noises, gestures, Nazi salutes and so on ‒ in the match against San Marino.
And this is just the latest in a long line of
shameful incidents.
So it really comes as no great surprise that the admitted
murderer of an 82 tear old grandfather in Birmingham, a Muslim, Mohammed
Saleem, would be a student extremist from Ukraine. The attack took place just
five days after Pavlo Lapshyn arrived in Britain, and was followed by the
planting of bombs at three mosques in the West Midlands.
What really struck me was the interview conducted by ITV
News with Lapshyn’s father back home, in which it was denied that his son was a
murderer, nor that he was a fascist.
“But then, why did he blow up a mosque, not a synagogue?”
enquired father, apparently unaware that this disclosed his own profoundly
racist attitudes.
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