The Dean Jones ‘terrorist’ remark

Generally I agree with Will, but to me Dean Jones’ comments are as bad as those of the (thankfully) former football pundit Ron Atkinson. “Big Ron” subsequently claimed his blatantly racist comments were actually nothing of the sort whilst the evidence then and again now with Jones, supports a rather different conclusion.

That’s a silly thing to say for Dean Jones, especially with the state of the world right now. I’m sure it’ll blow over though, after profuse apologies from him because I’m sure he was not intentionally stereotyping muslims as terrorists. What is up with these celebrities going after people of certain faiths? Mel Gibson just got in trouble for anti-Semitic remarks.

Dino just happened to be in the commentators box when the big mouth opened- but seriously people, Dino was no doubt jesting as we all have done from time to time.

That is unfortunately the state of the world we live in. Overt symbols of any kind, be they religious or political are seen as radical, and this is associated with extremism. That generates fear and mistrust.

It’s not just Dino – it is all of us.

Its a pity that Dino, who despite being a melbournian, Australia’s multicultural city can make such irresposible comments. It does represent the ‘prejudice’ some of the people have against the religion and I think he was appropriately punished. Such people do not qualify for the commentry position, with this attitude it would be biased anyway. Well another sad story, another fallen hero for me. People must have respect towards the cricketers of all race and religion.

Dean jones did a very stupid activity. He has poor mind person he don’t know actual worth of Muslim. All the muslim’s country baned him.

I am not fully aware of the circumstances surrounding this comment of Dean Jones. This certainly is not something any sane person would speak into a microphone under any situation, most certainly not a professional commentator. That it was said when he thought the microphone was switched off was unfortunate for him but raises a few issues. Is Dean Jones a racist? Why else would he use such nicknames? Is this simply a case of pun taken too far? What is the common impression of a muslim with a heavy growth of beard? Is there a need to have an appearance code when playing cricket? The length of the beard for example besides other things?

these fucking whitemen are always racist

As a muslim, obviously it is very painful to hear such comments made by Dino. But as far as i know Dino has sincerely aplogised to Amla and Amla has forgiven him as any true muslim would do. End of that. I think the media is just blowing this out of proportion. Unfortunately we do live in a world where racism, violence, hatred exists. Those who do harbour racism should know that there is really one race and that is the human race. To hurt a human is to hurt mankind.

I agree with Sami – can’t hurt can it?

John..maybe you need a little history lesson…the origins of lebanon/palestinian crisis go way back to the 1967 Israeli illegal occupation of land… the root cause of all this madness..if that werent to happen there would be guaranteed peace in the Middle East

terroists have no religion as they have no respect for human life …and please don’t shorten your memory…Hitler, Mao, Stalin, Bush , Blair, surely they dont belong to the same group, do they??

I’ve heard that Amla’s own team mates call him terrorist as a nickname. Besides that the comment was never meant to go to air, it did and Jones paid the price. For all you guys slagging Jones, like you’ve never told a joke that could be taken out of context or could be blown out of proportion. Get a grip.

A joke. You’ve said it was a joke. Why are you treating it more than a joke? Do you have to feel offended? Why does it hurt your feelings?

Darren Lehmann called a Sri Lanka a black c***. He got three games I believe.

A Pakistani player called Adam Gilchrist a white so and so. He was not reprimanded because they couldn’t make out the second part of the comment. But we know that shouldn’t matter because the Pakistani player distinguished between colour/race.

Hypocrisy of the ICC? Double standards more like it.

Then again we’re talking about religion not race here so your Flintoff comment is invalid.

Maybe if you stopped talking like it was deliberately said on air as to provoke religious vilification and thought about the context of which it was taken out of then you’d realise it was nothing more than a joke.

Obviously Jones felt comfortable enough with the commentary team he was working with to say such a joke. Between friends jokes are jokes. When people are looking to be offended it doesn’t take much.

…..he embbarrssed himself , his country, respect of many, his job, his future and im sure mentally much more..Heck loads to loosse in the space of 5 second…. some joke eh??

FATE Id’ say…maybe he had it coming…he should have told some ‘Knock knock, who’s there’ jokes instead… silly man

Ok.. so I listened to all you guys comments and most of you guys hit it on the head. I am from South Africa… born in Durban… am a 3rd generation Hindu… we have dealt with Racism… segregation etc..

What Dean Jones said was stupid…silly… in fact ridiculous… but I think that Hashim Amla dealt with it in the most apporpriate way that all South African’s (almost all!) have dealt with transformation in our country.. HE DEALT WITH IT PEACEFULLY…

Dean Jones has scripted his own exit scene… his final flirt with cricket lovers all around the world…blah blah blah..

When I first heard the statement I laughed and then was upset because I know that Hashim has had a lot of criticism to deal with about his batting ability and other pressures of being the first South African of Indian descent to play for the National team..

Our own local commentators have been very unsupportive of his batting and have overly criticised him… and NOW THIS stupid remark from Jones.. COMMENTATORS GIVE THIS CHAP A BREAK

Dean Jones: You are an irresponsible man and you should apologise to your wife and kids and extended family for now bringing about a situation where all people associated with you will unfortunatley walk around with a stigma of being racist (I hope this doesn’t last for the sake of the next generation of Jones’)…

Nevertheless we South African’s have dealt with much more serious attrocities so your irresponsible statement will be forgoteen come the summer… and please look for forgiveness from the LORD as it is not our place to forgive you.

Good call Ah-jun.

Hi MJK and fellow bloggers,

What a pity – but I dont believe we should get Dino’s comment and Hair’s bull-headed stubbornness mixed up. Dino is a good guy who suffered just for a moment with foor-in-mouth disease while Hair proves his size is a very large part ego, and minimal in braim.

Did anyone however read about the news clip of passengers complained about two Arab speaking passengers off a plane simply because they spoke Arabic and the authorities and airlines actuially took them off the plane.

Now that was deja vu and THAT is the real issue of racism, mass hysteria and a growing fear psychosis. How do we address that, the racial profiling, the overt discrimination and the treat that it spills into sport.

Ball tampered or not – there is going to be shit on the fan for a long time. Having played some serious cricket in my time – I agree with Imran – I would have protested strongly right there and right then, and then gone on to cream England in the test.

Question is………….was Inzzy dead sure then ?

That was just an example of Pure Arrogance.

That last thing you need in Cricket is the arrogance you only see in cheap Tabloids