Closing Comments on Ashkan Dejagah

By: Jan | October 20th, 2007

I had previously blogged about the controversy surrounding Germany’s U21 national team player Ashkan Dejagah, and it’s time to conclude this story with the latest developments of last week.

While the backbench politicians who demanded his suspension faded into anonymity again, Stephan Kramer of the Central Council of Jews showed some understanding for Dejagah, if he indeed only had safety concerns for his family. He also criticised the way the German FA handled the case.

The association should have acted more intelligently and given the player better guidance. It should not happen that one lets a 21-year- old walk into such a difficult situation.

And he made a very good point there. It was the first time the German FA was confronted with such a situation, so I hope they learned something from it for the future.

Ashkan Dejagah then gave an interview for the online edition of Stern, where he explained himself and cleared up some of the false information that was floating through the press. I won’t provide a direct translation of his answers, instead here is quick a summary of what he had to say:

He regrets the confusion that his actions have caused. He isn’t a racist nor does he share any sentiments against anyone on this world.
He repeated his personal reasons. That people who travel to Israel have to fear consequences in Iran and that he only did this for his family. He hasn’t been to Iran himself for five or six years.
It was his own decision to do what he did. His family didn’t force him.
He stated that he and his family aren’t very interested in politics, and don’t pay close attention to what is happening in Iran.
When asked about Iran’s president and his Holocaust denial and calls for the destruction of Israel he answered, that his personal world view has nothing to do with that and that it’s sad, that he was alleged of supporting such ideas.
He only heard about the reaction from the Iranian media through the German press. While he speaks Persian, he can’t read or write it.
He isn’t a very strict Muslim either.
It isn’t true that his father wanted him to play for Iran. His father was just as happy and proud, when he was called up for the German U16 team a few years ago. While the Iranian FA asked him to play for them, he never seriously considered it and now it’s too late anyway, as he can no longer switch.
His brother is living with his family in Berlin and isn’t playing for a football club in Tehran(!).
He didn’t consider faking an injury as an option. It would have been worse if this lie would have been uncovered.
He hopes to continue to play for Germany, and his dream is playing in a World Cup one day.

Shortly afterwards Dejagah met with DFB (German FA) president Theo Zwanziger to discuss the situation as well and Zwanziger decided, that Dejagah can continue to play for the German national team.

Ashkan Dejagah has assured us that, due to his Iranian background, he was exclusively concerned with the well-being of his family. He stressed … that there were no racist or anti-Semitic reasons.

Further reactions came from the Iranian regime on Friday, albeit a bit late, as everything had been resolved by then. Though it didn’t concern them much anyway, as they were only interested in exploiting the case for their propaganda:

Ashkan Dejagah belongs to Iran. Dejagah by refusing to go to Israel proved that he loves Iran and is attached to his country. We are interested in that he plays for Iran (national team). - Iranian vice-president and the head of Iran Physical Education, Mohammad Aliabadi

While I skimmed through Google News to come up with English sources for this blog post, I also came across another opinion piece. It’s from the Jerusalem Post and it contains an interesting passage concerning the general question of what would have been the morally sound thing to do. And the author takes a position, that has generally been taken by a couple of people in the wake of this discussion:

On the other hand, it is precisely such a situation that affords a unique opportunity to make political statements that reverberate around the entire world. In this case, Dejagah was in a position to take a stand on two separate issues of great import. The first relates to his own community of Muslim immigrants in Germany. By playing in Israel, Dejagah would have represented his acceptance of German values (i.e., Germany’s special relationship with the Jewish state in the wake of the Holocaust) at the expense of traditional Muslim hostility toward Israel. For a community that currently faces serious problems of integration and alienation based on the ostensible clash between traditional Islamic values and the mores of modern German society, Dejagah’s stance in favor of the latter would have been a powerful statement for those who see their future in the Federal Republic.

A second important element relates, of course, to Jewish-Muslim relations, which are of concern not only in the Middle East, but throughout Europe and everywhere that large Jewish and Muslim communities reside in the same countries. By opting to play in Israel despite the ominous threats from Teheran, Dejagah would have struck an unusually powerful blow for tolerance and resoundingly rejected the hatred of the mullahs, sending a message not only to Iran, but to Muslims the world over.

I highly doubt that this strong message and all that would have been heard in the world. In fact, there is simple prove that it hasn’t been heard. It has simply been ignored. Chris over at Bundesliga Talk has collected his thoughts on the case as well and his post included the following listing:

Germany has a large number of U21’s that have attachments to Muslim countries: Sami Khedira, Serdar Taşçı, Mounir Chaftar, Serkan Çalik, Mustafa Kučuković, Barış Özbek and Nejmeddin Daghfous have all been called up recently (some as full internationals)

And I might add Schalke’s Mesut Özil as well, who together with Baris Özbek was in Germany’s U21 team that played against Israel (2-2). Those two did exactly what the author is asking for. They had no problem to travel to Israel, to visit the Holocaust memorial with the other players and then to play the match. Though, did anyone notice that? Did anyone make a big fuss about it? Did they make it to the headlines as poster boys for Muslim immigrants in Germany, for Jewish-Muslim relations and all that? No, nothing of that.