Things you will never see on CNN.

[Seascamp]

Recently the Hungarian soccer team traveled to Istanbul to play the Saudi Arabian team. They played a scoreless game and when the Hungarian PM was publicly chided about the Hungarian boys not doing better, he replied that they did real well considering that half the Saudi team were probably ?terrorists?.
Oops, and the diplomatic notes are a flying around in Budapest and there are many boo-boo lips at the Saudi embassy. At the end of the day the PM conceded he was just joking around but I guess the Saudis didn?t see the humor in it. In general, that ?joke? bespeaks of the attitude around these parts. The local media or Opposition Party didn?t skin him alive for such a remark, so I guess things are OK for the PM at the moment. :re:

Scamp

[Boats]

Oh yea - you can disappear in a heart beat over there for saying the wrong things - even if your joking. Best to be neutral at all times - safer.

[Seascamp]

Well Boats, there seems to be a very high but invisable wall that separates the Balkans/Islamic influence from Central Europe, especially Hungary and Romania. This issue goes way back to the Ottoman Empire days. Hungary was at least partially ruled by the Ottoman Turks for 140 years and aside from museum artifacts, there is no detectable Islamic influence left these days.

So hard talk and taking shots at the Moslems is not a rare thing at all, but ill advised in my opinion. But like you say, they keep a low profile when outside their respective borders and that is a very prudent thing to do. But on the other hand, getting on a ?list? has proven to be a good way to become a fatality statistic in Europe and I expect this to continue. There is a very low level but detectable ?in their face? attitude directed toward the Moslem world and that is not without risk.

Scamp