Unprecedented Pakistan Cricket Scandal Will Strengthen Political Islam

This isn't a joke ... in any way ...

Yesterday -- for the first time in history -- a national cricket team was disqualified by a referee from a major test match.

This would be shocking enough under any circumstances, even if you don't know a lot about cricket, and the specifics of the "ball tampering" charge.

But the fact that it was the Pakistan national team -- disqualified by an Australian referee -- and it happened in London -- makes clear the volatile potential of the incident.

The most obvious effect will be to worsen the relationship between Pakistan and the West, especially Britain -- already unsettled by the re-emergence of strong Pakistani connections among the suspects in the UK airline plot.

But if that's the worst of it, we can breathe a sigh of relief.

Put bluntly, the identity politics of the situation -- a Muslim team having problems with a Western official in the home of the British Empire --

feed all too easily into the sense of victimization that characterizes popular feelings in the Islamic world towards the West --

so disturbingly demonstrated by violent emotions of the Muhammad (pbuh) cartoon controversy.

This is NOT to say that this is going to result in the riotous outbursts of that earlier contretemps.

But it WILL feed into the sense of grievance against the West in the Arab / Muslim world ...

in a fashion similar to the way the invasion of Iraq "confirmed" the political Islamic view of the United States,

and the invasion of Lebanon did / is doing the same for the Islamist view of Israel ...

And if you think I'm kidding, you should watch the extraordinary Indian film LAGAAN, a masterpiece of world cinema that should be required viewing for anyone even minimally interested in the political / culture / economy of South Asia.

Among its many important subjects in the Aamir Kahn / Ashutosh Gowarikar production is the major cultural importance of cricket to the masses of the Indian sub-continent,

for whom cricket -- an upper-class sport in England -- is a popular non-elite endeavor -- much like baseball or, even more now, basketball for Americans.

While this may have relatively less resonance in the Arab world, a cricket scandal will have major import for Muslims in Pakistan and India.

As if there isn't enough to worry about already ...