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Murder of Real Madrid fans a reminder of how lucky we are

16th May, 2016
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The penalty shootout is a tragic way to lose a match. (AP Photo / Franz Mann)
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16th May, 2016
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Amidst all the weekend’s sporting action, it went largely unreported in Australia that 16 Real Madrid fans were brutally murdered at a supporters club on Friday.

It’s a sad reality that violence is simply what we expect when we read stories from Iraq – all the more so when ISIS are involved.

But what happened in the Al Furat cafe, some 125 kilometres north of Baghdad, is too tragic to simply brush aside as another incident in a war-torn country.

The cafe is the headquarters of a local Real Madrid supporters club, and some 50 people had come together to drink coffee and watch replays of old matches, when this peaceful gathering of sports fans was ripped apart by ISIS.

Spanish paper AS spoke to the club’s President, Ziad Subhan, who explained what happened:

“A group of Islamic terrorists, from ISIS, came into the café, armed with AK-47s, shooting at random at everyone who was inside.”

It’s been reported six gunmen opened fire and threw grenades in the cafe, brutally slaughtering 16 people and injuring 20 others.

Photos in The Mirror show the bullet-riddled cafe after the attack, with a devastating amount of blood on the floor. They’re extremely confronting images.

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Four of the six gunmen were followed to a nearby farm, where they used bombs to commit suicide as the authorities closed in on them.

What was perhaps most devastating was what Subhan said the motivation for the attack had been:

“They don’t like football, they think it’s anti-Muslim. They just carry out attacks like this. This is a terrible tragedy.”

It’s not news that ISIS are a death cult, using any excuse to kill innocent people. But now they’re murdering people for watching football?

Not only that, they are prepared to kill themselves for the purpose of stopping others from watching 22 men kick a ball on a field?

Real Madrid released a statement on the incident, saying, “Football and sport shall always be spaces in which to come together and in which harmony and peace reign and with which no form of barbaric terrorism will be able to compete.

“Today Madridismo across the whole world cries for its supporters, who shall never be forgotten.”

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Madrid’s players wore black armbands in solidarity with the people of Iraq during Saturday’s match. It was a touching gesture, reminding us that the sporting community is a global one, and that vicious attacks in Iraq are felt across the world in Spain – and, indeed, here in Australia.

Like the supporters club, The Roar is a community bonded in sport. We may not always agree with one another, and things can sometimes get pretty heated in the comments section, but an incident like this really puts into perspective how petty our disagreements can be – and what a privilege it is that we can have them, safe in the knowledge our lives are not under threat for being passionate about sport.

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