Rita Panahi: Divisive political activism has no place on the sporting field

Woke activists can’t even play by their own rules, preaching tolerance while they spew vitriol at those who won’t submit to their worldview.

The woke Left can’t even play by their own stupid rules.

They love to preach tolerance, inclusion and acceptance, and rail against “white privilege” but they’re not very good at practising it.

Just look at the vitriolic reaction to Pacific Islander rugby league players who say they do not want to participate in LGBTQIA+ activism that’s contrary to their beliefs.

There’s no tolerance from the privileged white activist, management and media class who demand total submission to their worldview. The people of colour who resist are told to take a hike. Black lives matter … except when they challenge the prevailing Leftist orthodoxy.

Rugby league’s self-created crisis began when Manly decided to engage in some fashionable political posturing by embracing an “inclusive” rainbow-themed strip to celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community.

No one can explain what was non-inclusive about the existing jersey but without consultation the club introduced the new “pride” jersey for its upcoming clash against the Roosters.

Josh Aloiai, Jason Saab, Christian Tuipulotu, Josh Schuster, Haumole Olakau’atu, Tolutau Koula and Toafofoa Sipley are among the players who reportedly opposed the jersey due to religious beliefs.

Manly’s pride jerseys is another example of divisive political activism entering the sporting arena.

They were given an ultimatum by the Australian Rugby League Commission chair Peter V’landys who said: “If you don’t want to be inclusive and you don’t recognise that we’re all human beings and we’re all the same, well you have the right to stand down and not play. But the game will always be there for everyone.”

Feel the tolerance. Participate in our LGBTQIA+ activism or else. It seems many of those who use the word “inclusive” do not know what it means.

What about being inclusive of Christians, Muslims and other religions? Or being inclusive of those who have nothing against the LGBT community but are conscious of the many troubling excesses of trans ideology and its powerful lobby?

As one openly gay man said to me on Tuesday: “The gays have little in common with the pronoun people who want to transition toddlers and believe in 150 genders. Most of us want nothing to do with this corporate driven activism.”

You don’t have to be a homophobe or transphobe to be troubled by divisive political activism again entering the sporting arena.

For the sake of inclusion are we going to have a round with jerseys featuring the Cross for Christians or the Crescent and Star for Muslims or perhaps a Star of David for the Jewish community?

You can be sure there are plenty of other players who don’t want to wear the rainbow jersey but it’s not the hill they want to die on.

They may object to the needless virtue signalling but they don’t want to lose sponsors, cop abuse from the media or jeopardise their playing contracts or sit out an important game. It shows again how vacuous and inauthentic this activism is; by forcing players to participate or sit out the game the gesture loses all meaning.

One felt sorry for Manly coach Des Hasler as he fronted the media and apologised profusely to everybody.

Manly coach Des Hasler fronted the media and apologised profusely to everybody. Picture: Monique Harmer

“The jersey’s intent was to support the advocacy and human rights pertaining to gender, race, culture, ability and LGBTQ rights. Sadly, the execution of what was intended to be an extremely important initiative was poor,” Hasler said.

The coach may struggle to put a team together.

At the time of writing the Sea Eagles were scrambling to find players with The Daily Telegraph reporting that a number of would-be-first timers had rejected the chance to play as they too were opposed to wearing the LGBTQIA+ strip.

The very white, very woke types who love Leftist political pandering masquerading as “inclusion” have been quick to mock the Polynesian players pointing out they have no issue wearing jerseys featuring gambling and alcohol ads.

Now I’m no religious scholar, but there’s nothing in the bible about alcohol or gambling being a sin. Drunken debauchery and greed are frowned upon but one can drink in moderation without being hell bound.

In any case it’s hard not to see a double standard in the treatment of AFLW player and practising Muslim Haneen Zreika who declined to wear a pride jumper and cricketer and practising Muslim Fawad Ahmed who declined to have VB’s logo on his Australian shirt.

Haneen Zreika declined to wear a pride jumper.

Fawad Ahmed declined to have VB’s logo on his Australian shirt.

But when it comes to Christians, it’s open season even if the Christians happen to be people of colour. The very same folk who characterise any criticism of Adam Goodes or Lydia Thorpe as inherently racist are happy to mock the deeply held Christian beliefs of black athletes.

Religious, political and ideological activism have no place on the sporting field. It’s one thing to advocate for genuine equality, that is a universal value, but special treatment of certain groups or elevating certain demographics above others is by definition exclusionary and divisive. And if the players don’t like it you can be sure that the majority of fans are sick of politics and contentious issues intruding into sport.

A number of online polls on major news sites on Tuesday showed overwhelming support for the Polynesian players with some sites having around four in five siding with the Manly seven, and even news.com.au had two in three readers say the players shouldn’t have to wear the rainbow jersey.

Professional sport should be an escape from politics, not a vehicle to promote partisan causes that while popular with the media disenfranchise a significant portion of the population.