Muslim man's epic tweets on football riots highlight media's biased coverage

Hayder al-Khoei mocked football hooligans while he also satirised media’s portrayal of violence in Middle East

Severe clashes have cast a shadow over Euro 2016 with Uefa threatening to disqualify Russia and England from the tournament if violence continues.

As the world witnessed the violence with several people on both sides injured, one British-Iraqi academic gained stardom on social media after posting a series of tweets about the riots in Marseille. His tweets, however, had an interesting twist.

Watching from London, Hayder al-Khoei, who is a research director at England’s Centre for Academic Shia Studies, began typing out an epic series of tweets, mocking football hooligans while also satirising media’s portrayal of violence in the Middle East.

“The whole thread is a tongue-in-cheek imitation of how many Western analysts and journalists cover conflict in the Middle East,” he told BuzzFeed News.



https://twitter.com/Hayder_alKhoei/status/741602966478671872

https://twitter.com/Hayder_alKhoei/status/741618723744841728

The Brit moved to attribute football hooliganism to “centuries-old” religious divisions between European nations.

https://twitter.com/Hayder_alKhoei/status/741655220325916673

https://twitter.com/Hayder_alKhoei/status/741657534415687681



The academic tried explaining European culture to Arabs.

https://twitter.com/Hayder_alKhoei/status/741656231962632192

https://twitter.com/Hayder_alKhoei/status/741659456526815232

https://twitter.com/Hayder_alKhoei/status/741702266026102785

And he also applied current geopolitical dimensions to the incident.

https://twitter.com/Hayder_alKhoei/status/741661675611361280

However, in the end since most Twitter users failed to understand al-Khoei’s tone, the Brit had to explain that he was being sarcastic.

https://twitter.com/Hayder_alKhoei/status/741759024438358016

https://twitter.com/Hayder_alKhoei/status/741807437842374656