Why don't you support "the man"

During a live interview with Channel 9 Mundine, who converted to Islam in 1998, was asked to comment on the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. His observations, as far as they were allowed to go (the TV station claimed there was a 'technical fault'), were somewhat ambiguous but overnight Mundine became a pariah and everyone from sports journalists to the leader of the Labour Party leapt to denigrate the boxer. Manager and long-time friend Khoder Nasser recalls: 'He got roasted over here. Hammered. The main Sydney paper basically called him a terrorist; they crucified him for voicing his opinion when he was asked to voice it. It was crazy.
But then when the media vilified Anthony for speaking out against a rugby player who'd called him 'a black ****' you come to expect them to use anything as ammunition against him.' But the reverberations of the Channel 9 comments went far beyond Australia. The U.S.- based IBF considered dropping him from their ratings before opting to 'warn him' not to voice similar opinions again; yet the WBC felt it incumbent upon them to 'indefinitely suspend' the Aussie from their ratings. Speaking to this magazine in October, WBC President Jose Sulaiman rationalised that decision by citing ArticleV.2 of the Mexico-based organisation's constitution.
'No-one in boxing should use the sport as a platform for politics,' Sulaiman said. 'What that man said offended many, many people and brought the sport of boxing into disrepute.' Kinda like Mike Tyson did when he was convicted of **** in 1992? The same Mike Tyson the WBC installed as No.1 heavyweight challenger upon his release from prison in 1995? 'That is totally different,' boxing's moral guardian countered. 'Mike Tyson didn't commit that crime.' Oh. To this day, Mundine insists his interrupted comments were contorted by his adversaries in the press. 'What I said was raw but it was what was in my heart,' he argued. 'Taking one innocent life, to me, is like taking all of humanity and I was horrified [at what happened] like everyone else.
But if you look at the American foreign policy in so many parts of the world - Iraq, Afghanistan are just two - they've helped create this whole problem and that's what I meant when I said they'd brought it on themselves. There are other ways through this that don't involve dropping bombs. 'I knew I'd get bombarded but I had to take this stance and if you look at what's happened since then, millions of people have protested against these wars not only in Australia but also in American and Britain, too. I highlighted an issue when no-one else dared speak out against what our governments were planning.' But a subsequent TV appearance, where Mundine apologised for any pain his comments may have caused while reiterating his condemnation of war, didn't abate the press assault. Nasser said sections of the Sydney media declared all-out war on his fighter and positively delighted in his defeat by Ottke. 'The photo of Anthony laying on the canvas was used for three days straight in some newspapers,' said Nasser. 'In fact, some papers used that shot for the Echols fight - they continually use it and that was a fight from two years ago.
'If you believe what you read you'd think the public hate Anthony Mundine, but the reception he gets in the arenas and on the street is nothing like that. The papers can write what they want to write for the reasons they want to write them, but they can't tell the public what to think. Not about politics and not about public figures. Most people just aren't that stupid.' Mundine added: 'I won the world title not just for myself, my dad and the people who supported me, but also for Australia.



http://www.boxing-monthly.co.uk/content/0401/three.htm


Don't be silly with stupid accusations, it's a boxing forum not a race/religion/politics forum.