When Middlesboro entertained Newcastle on August 27^th 2007 the Egyptian striker was subjected to chants of “He’s got a bomb,” by Newcastle supporters who believe that Mido - Ahmed Hossam Hussein Abdelamid - resembles the shoe-bomber Richard Reid. It clearly offended Mido - no stranger to controversy himself. He responded by scoring and celebrated his goal in his home début at Middlesboro’s Riverside Stadium in the 2-2 draw by making a shushing gesture at the Newcastle fans who had been abusing him. Mido thought the chants ridiculous. “I heard it,” he said at the time. “It was clear and I understood what they were saying. I am used to it from opposition fans. I just think it was ridiculous.” The referee Mike Dean booked him, apparently for security reasons. All he did was put his finger to his mouth to tell his detractors to shut up.

He was understandably annoyed about the booking. “I was really frustrated when the referee gave me a yellow card, as I don’t think I deserved a booking,” said Mido at the time. “I was told it was for security reasons, but I don’t see how that is possible. I don’t see what I did that would affect security of the fans. I just put my finger to my mouth to say quiet.”

The chants were interpreted as being Islamophobic and the FA began an investigation of them. The yellow card was not rescinded by Dean even after he was made aware of the abuse Mido had suffered. Both Mido and his club wanted a line drawn under the incident. Middlesboro manager Gareth Southgate thought it had crossed the line, but did not want it to affect relations between the two clubs. Nevertheless, the FA began an investigation of the incident and Newcastle belatedly apologised.

And that could easily have been the end of the matter. Many fans remain convinced that it was just banter and in no way equivalent to the racist abuse that black players had to endure especially previously. For some footballers, especially high earning ones, are fair game. The FA and other organisations disagree, Last month a seminar took place at the Diversity and Citizen Focus Directorate of the Metropolitan Police Service. It was organised by Lucy Faulkner - the FA’s Equality Manager - to try to devise an approach to tackle anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in football.

In this article we will look into the issue of their approach to combating Islamophobia. The seminar was designed to plan a co-ordinated multi-agency approach to tackling anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. “I really want to see a collective agreement on the way forward,” said Lucy Faulkner. “One of things that I hope will come out of it was that we would all agree on a zero-tolerance campaign and that we will come up with clear action.” So did the seminar produce that action? “We got a set of clear policies,” she says. “The police said that they need to tighten up on incidents recorded. They were quite clear that they needed to be recorded as anti-Semitic and Islamophobic crime. That was one simple action to come out of it. I’m going to put it all together - have a good look at it - and set up a steering group to move this forward.”

So what about the incident the incident that led to the initiative? How do they plan to prevent repetition of the Mido incident? “Well it’s hard to say that it would prevent it,” says Faulkner. “We would like to look at how to avoid a player having to make a gesture if they are frustrated with what they see happening. Clearly Mido got very frustrated. We need to make sure that stewards are taking action when an incident of abuse in the stadium occurs and then that the stewards tell the police and hopefully the players will be supported and not have to take it into their own hands.”

The booking still stands. Doesn’t that send the wrong message, both to players and fans? If the abuse of Mido was Islamophobic then booking him for reacting to it tells fans that they can provoke players and get them disciplined if they react to it. The nature of the booking was ludicrous and refusing to retract it even after Newcastle belatedly apologised for the incident can only send the wrong message. “We’re back to the argument, ‘did it send the wrong message?’ says Faulkner. “Yes, okay. I think it’s a difficult one. I think at the time the referee did the right thing because maybe he wasn’t aware of what was happening in the stands and any player who takes it into their own hands to make those sort of gestures to the crowd will be booked because that could inflame the crowd and that could be that sort of gesture or any other gesture they were making.” So what about afterwards when it was clear why Mido reacted? Shouldn’t it have been rescinded then? “I don’t actually remember the details,” she says before saying it is not her area.

So how does she think that Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in football can be tackled? “I think one of the messages that came out is how we can get players: fans and managers to work together in a coalition to say this is unacceptable instead of ten or twelve years of fighting mass chanting in the terraces?” says Faulkner. “It was players saying ‘this is unacceptable’ that made it [monkey-chanting] unacceptable. I’d like to think that that would happen in this too. I think that is something that will come out of the action plan.” The seminar was the first step in developing a multi agency approach to eradicate anti-Semitism and Islamophobia from football.

There are already some respected Muslim role models in football. Earlier this year Egypt retained the African Cup of Nations. Their coach Hassan Shehata made history by becoming only the second coach in the history of the tournament to win it twice as a coach let alone retain it. The only other to coach to share that distinction is the legendary Ghanaian Charles Kumi Gyamfi. Shehata is Muslim and proud of it. So what does he have to say about his religion, racism and football? “About this [racism] in European football it is allowed to some players, but not here,” he says. “It’s far away from here. I think these players [Mohamed] Aboutreika and [Hossam] Hassan have good experience of playing this big championship. There is no problem.” Nevertheless, Shehata is prepared to lend his voice to campaigning against Islamophobic abuse where he sees it. He unequivocally condemns the abuse of Mido. “We have to combat that,” he says emphatically. “It happened at his club. We have to condemn that, but I like the fact that his religion is important at his club.”

And the Player of the Tournament at the recent African Cup of Nations in Ghana is the young Ismailly midfielder Hosny Abd-Rabou abd el Moteleb Ibrahim. Abd-Rabou had an unsuccessful spell in European football with RC Strasbourg before returning to Ismailly, although injury didn’t help. Following his dynamic performances in the Cup of Nations he was linked with several European clubs including some in England. Ironically one of them was Newcastle. Abd-Rabou gave Empower-Sport Magazine an exclusive interview during the tournament. Like his coach he strongly condemns the racist abuse of Mido. “This is totally unacceptable from the fans and they shouldn’t do it,” says Abd-Rabou. “It shouldn’t be allowed. We are all sportsmen. You can’t put racism or politics into sport. It should not be allowed and is unacceptable.”

Abd-Rabou is a Muslim and demonstrates his faith in his play. Three Egyptians scored four goals during the tournament - Amr Hasan Zaky Mansour, Mohamed Aboutreika and Hosny Abd-Rabou, who had penalty-taking duties. Abd-Rabou celebrated his goals by bowing down and praying to Allah. “It’s a great honour, of course, for me to be representing my country, especially at this event, but the most important thing is to perform and perform in the best form so I can make a good achievement for my country,” he says. His goal celebration suggests that his religion is important to him. Is it? “Of course, it’s very important to me, because when I do that I am thanking God for appreciating my efforts and it is appreciating God for what he has done for me,” says Hosny Abd-Rabou. “After I was able to score it is something - especially - we Muslims do to thank God. This is how I celebrate because I feel grateful to God. It makes me happy to thank God at this time.”

His faith is important to him. He is a Muslim role-model in football. He celebrates in that manner to thank his God. Would he be permitted to continue such celebrations if he signed for an English club? “I think that no-one would have a problem with celebrating a goal like that would they?” says Lucy Faulkner. “We have seen a number of players cross themselves or use other religious gestures to celebrate. The issue would be how it would be perceived by fans. Stewards would have to make sure that they don’t abuse that player.”

So how could he be protected as such a celebration clearly identifies him as a Muslim and could lead to him being targeted because of it. He would have to be protected from abuse if the initiative is to succeed. How can he be protected from Islamophobic abuse? “We would go back to how long are these players being targeted?” says Faulkner. “It would be about what the club is doing. What are the stewards doing? How is it being treated by the police and what the police should do along with the stewards? If they saw an incident taking place they may not necessarily go in and remove those people immediately, because that could make the situation worse, so what we should do is get evidence and that may involve putting plain clothes police officers in - putting CCTV cameras in to get the evidence. Then the police can take action. They can take it as a criminal case.”

Chris Walley is responsible for safety and security at stadiums for the FA. He attended the seminar too. So how would he protect a player like Abd-Rabou if he chose to celebrate a goal as he did in Africa? Would such a celebration encourage Islamophobia because it identifies him as a Muslim? “I can’t the answer the second question because I don’t have responsibility for that area of the game,” says Walley. “I don’t think it’s my area. He would be protected as every player is protected, but I don’t think it is right for me to comment on an issue like that.”

How can Muslim role-models like Hosny Abd-Rabou be attracted to play in England if they cannot be convinced that their religion will be respected? Yunus Lunat is one of the FA’s Football Ambassadors. He organises at grass roots level. He thinks that Abd-Rabou would be supported in his celebrations. “Well I would hope that he would be viewed no different than the Christian players that are in the habit of following their custom of forming a cross on their chest,” says Lunat. “I would hope that it should be viewed no differently to that.” Lunat hopes that Abd-Rabou would not be targeted for his celebration. “I would hope not,” he says, “and I would expect nothing to come from it.”

He hopes that Abd-Rabou would be allowed to celebrate as he saw fit and indeed be encouraged to do so, as that would help to get the message through at grass-roots level. “It would certainly help as that would be a positive role model,” says Lunat. “We need Muslim role-models in the profession, which we are sadly lacking at the moment. It certainly would raise the awareness of the issue of Muslim players and, that at the end of the day, they are no different in plying their trade to their fellow professionals.” So what did Lunat want to see emerge from the seminar?

“Firstly to raise awareness about the issues of Islamophobia and anti-Semitism that unfortunately people indulge in these forms of discrimination persistently,” says Lunat. “It’s really prevalent. We have a problem in national football and I don’t see any difference at grass roots level. It’s something that a lot of us have been talking about for quite a long time. It has taken something like this to bring it to the prominence of the mainstream media who are only really interested in the Premier League.” Yunus Lunat is clear about what he wants the initiative to achieve. “Well the ultimate aim would be to have it eradicated,” he says. “Really zero tolerance is the message that we want to be taken to grass-roots level.”

If the initiative is to have any chance of success it needs high level support from the police. It had that. Among those to attend was Superintendent Dal Babu of the National Association of Muslim Police. So what does Babu think needs to be done? “We need to improve the level of training among stewards and the level of training of police officers to make sure that people are confident in reporting those incidents at the time,” he says. “Even if we are unable to arrest individuals who are perpetrating those offences at the time, we need to ensure that the police and stewards are able to get evidence as to who those individuals are so we can then take appropriate action.”

Babu welcomes Muslim role-models in football such as Abd-Rabou, which begs the question, what does he think of Abd-Rabou’s celebrations? “I think it is a totally appropriate way of celebrating a goal,” says Babu. “I think we need to make sure that the clubs and individuals in football are aware that he celebrates in this particular way and we need to make sure that if we have any concerns that there will be any incidents that we will be working together to try and stop that happening.”

He is pleased that Abd-Rabou and Shehata condemned what he insists was the racist abuse of Mido by Newcastle fans. “Actually I think that’s key,” says Babu. “If you look at the success we have had in the past where people used the N-word or P-word at football matches that became unacceptable because high profile football managers and football players got together and said that’s not acceptable. We need to have a similar campaign in relation to anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. We need to get key individuals: football commentators, players, managers and football stars to get together to help to stop it.”