Rashid did not stand behind ‘Stop War’ banner as there is no fairness

Mohammed Rashid

has talked about his decision to no stand behind a banner reading ‘Stop War’ when

had a game in Indonesia, saying that it is a matter of justice.

The Persib Bandung player went viral when refused to protest with his team-mates for the Ukraine-Russia crisis before the game this month.

He has now talked about his decision as to why he declined it. He believes that such gestures are selective about what conflict to protest, mentioning his own experience in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and insisting that the FIFA system is broken.

"

I didn't want to stand because there is no fairness in it,"

Rashid told 

GOAL

. 

"Obviously I do not support the war that is happening in Ukraine - I do not support Russia, I don't support any of this stuff. I'm against all types of wars, I'm against all types of violence.

"But for me to stand behind a Stop War banner when it comes to a war that's happening in Europe, when we tried to do the same thing [with] all the wars that have happened over the years in Palestine, and they tell us that we cannot do that, that it is illegal, that it is against FIFA rules, and that it is mixing football and politics, and all these things... it is just a matter of justice and fairness.

"They see our lives as Muslims, as Arabs, are not worthy, they don't matter, then that's their problem. At the end of the day, we are all human beings, we all want to live peacefully and happily and we all want to enjoy our lives too, so why can't we also stand with what we want to stand with when it comes to war in Palestine, war in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq? It's all human beings who are innocent people that are dying for no reason."

"So it is just a matter of justice and fairness. When they said that the rules are not mixing football and politics, but then when it happened to a country in Europe, it became OK to mix football and politics. There's no integrity, there's no fairness."

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