Guys, I'm surprised that this hasn't been raised by anyone yet (if it has apologies), but I was wondering whether we should be working with the club to have a minutes silence in support of the people whose life has been irrevocably changed as a result of the terror attacks in Brussels.
Whilst we have our issues with the current owners, we should not let that dictate how we respond to what happened to the whole of Beglium society (and indeed those across the EU/UK who died/suffered)
This could show the media and the club that we are not a pile of xenophobic thugs, but have a fan-base full of creative and supportive people who can separate the serious issue facing our club with that of whats happening in the wider society. Perhaps its something that CARD and the trust could use to open clearer dialogue with the Club.....
Light blue touch paper and retire......
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I completely reject that any Charlton supporters are letting our issues with Roland "dictate how we respond to what happened to the whole of Belgium society" and if you read the thread on here yesterday you would see everyone, from both sides of the debate, condemning the scumbags.
Dogpate your sentiment is in the right place. I had to stop reading the Belgium Attacks thread because it had started to become about responses go, and how to handle, ISIS and to be frank I was a large contributing factor to that. That said, 99% of CLers expressed nothing but love and support for those in Brussels.
Not sure quite where that line should be though.
Could the Turkish people think that throughout the rest of Europe the lives lost in Turkey are viewed less worthy than the lives lost in Belgium?
Paris and Brussels are both Near Neighbours.
Does the fact that Turkey population is 96% Muslim, even thou it has seen itself as a secular society for a number of years come into play ?
The fact that Turkey straddles two Continents.
If you check out the bombs in Turkey over the last 2 years they haven't all been to do with Isis. (should that matter)
The fact that we have a lot of Belgian Players in the Premier League must also play a part in the minutes silence.
The difference between the attacks on France and Belgium, when compared with the likes of Turkey, extend far beyond proximity. It's sad to say that the events of this week weren't totally surprising anymore - and I think the media coverage has actually reflected this - but Belgium was still more surprising than Turkey.
An attack on a country like Belgium feels much more like an attack on us, most likely due a combination of both proximity and because of the similarities in culture and the numerous ties we have as nations.
When you then consider the motives behind the attack - Belgium could just as easily have been us. The Daesh view the UK as quite a high profile target - one that, so far, has proven to be too difficult to attack successfully. Seeing another one of their attacks as successful acts as a reminder to all of us that it could be any one of us next - getting on the train to go to work, or going through Gatwick to have a long weekend away. Even so, I don't recall a minutes silence after the Daesh took down a Russian civilian airliner.
In contrast, whilst Turkey is essentially the frontline between us and IS now, we don't really identify ourselves as having a position in relation to their hostilities with the Kurds. In actual fact, we were condemning them up until very recently.
Our only view is simply condemnation of the actions - "Terrorism is wrong" - but the same could be said of countless attacks all over the world. Perhaps wrongly, it always seems more poignant when an enemy attacks an ally - even though in reality both incidents are utterly abhorrent, and they were both essentially the slaughter of innocent people going about their daily lives. Arguably we should be honouring those victims too, and I can appreciate that view.
This leads me on to a point that's already been mentioned here: there simply has to be a line drawn somewhere. For instance, during 2015 there were over 25 terrorist attacks which resulted in 100+ civilian deaths each, does each one get a minute's silence? If so, does that not weaken the gesture of a minutes silence? Without boundaries, we could after all very easily have one for nearly every fixture of a given season - such is the rather sorry state of our world.