Danish TV apologized for comparing Moroccan football players hugging their mothers with monkeys. The TV channel was declared racist by some viewers for disrespecting the players and their families.
Danish public broadcaster apologizes for the segment of its shows that compared the Moroccan national team embracing their families to monkeys. The show was broadcasted last week. Host Soren Lippert held up an image of the families of monkeys huddled together which colleague Christian Hogert compared to Moroccan players.
The channel later released a statement that read, “TV 2 NEWS host Christian Høgh Andersen draws a line between staying together as a family to the next topic about animals. Unintentionally, this becomes a comparison between Morocco’s national football team and their families, and a picture of a monkey family that host Søren Lippert presents for the following topic.”
https://twitter.com/doamuslims/status/1604233348230139904?s=20&t=ZFTejttJwAqagWvGJjIuWQ
“This can be perceived as a racist comment, and both TV 2 and Christian Høgh Andersen would like to give a profound apology for that.”
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The Danish broadcaster had apologized in response to the tweet by a group Documenting Oppression Against Muslims, who called out the segment earlier on Saturday.
We’re very sorry for this and deeply regret and apologise. https://t.co/xU6dwVAYVq
— TV 2 Danmark (@tv2danmark) December 17, 2022
The comments received flak worldwide and were declared ‘racist’ and ‘disgusting’.
“I am not shocked at all by the level of racism coming out of European media about Moroccan players. What surprised me is how they cannot even respect the sacred relationship players have with their mothers,” Moroccan anthropologist Aomar Boum said in a tweet.
“I guess invoking monkeys is a way to stress the “African primitive”.”
The Moroccan national team grabbed the attention of the world after their miraculous journey to the semi-final of the FIFA World Cup 2022 Qatar. Players hugging their mothers, and dancing while celebrating the victory won the hearts of football fans in Muslim countries and around the globe.