91Èȱ¬

The police in Scotland are investigating the sending of parcel bombs to the manager of Celtic - one of the big football clubs in Glasgow - and to a lawyer and a politician.

Devices addressed to the Celtic boss, Neil Lennon and his lawyer Paul McBride were intercepted by the Post Office.

The third, was sent to Celtic supporter and former deputy presiding officer of the Scottish Parliament Trish Godman and was delivered to her office.

Neil Lennon, who's a Roman Catholic from Northern Ireland, has previously endured threats, abuse and violence on a number of occasions.

Much of the support for Celtic and their main rivals Rangers - known collectively as the Old Firm - is historically tied up in religion.

were founded by an Irish Marist brother - Walfrid - and historically draw their support from the descendants of Irish Catholics who emigrated to Scotland after the Great Famine.

were founded by brothers Moses and Peter McNeil, Peter Campbell and William McBeath and have traditionally drawn support from Scotland's mainly Protestant community.

As a football fan with nearly half-a-century of experience, I'm aware of the long-standing sporting rivalry between the Old Firm on the pitch, as well as the sectarianism that clouds the relationship between their supporters.

The threats have been roundly condemned throughout Scotland and the Rangers assistant manager Ally McCoist, was swift to describe the culprits who sent a parcel bombs as "evil and sick".

I was already a 91Èȱ¬ journalist, when in 1996, teenager Mark Scott was killed by a man who picked him at random from a group of Celtic supporters as they walked home past a Rangers pub in Glasgow. And in May of 1999 a man was charged with murder, following the death of Rangers fan John Ormiston, just hours after an Old Firm clash with Celtic.

In the years since their deaths, sectarianism has reportedly continued to plague Scotland - claiming the lives of many other young men, scarring and maiming countless others from both sides.

Cara Henderson - the founder of an anti-sectarian charity and former girlfriend of Mark Scott once said, "one of the problems is that debate on this has been limited to the Old Firm rivalry, so people view the violence and abuse as football hooliganism and they can say, we're not football hooligans. But this is not just about football fans. The bigotry is alive and well in the middle classes."

However, the Crown Audit in 2003 has shown that football is not the main source of sectarianism in Glasgow and at most, a quarter of religiously aggravated crimes in Glasgow are football related.

Nonetheless it's football which is seen as the focal point of a tendency towards male tribalism and macho culture and for that reason, I've chosen to talk about football.

I happen to live in north London, so geographically the nearest club to my house is .

Over the years I've noticed myself developing a fondness for the club, though never having been at the Emirates Stadium.

I have also noticed that little by little, I've started to develop a feeling of animosity towards Arsenal rivals, and if the last minute penalty is given against the opposition I see it as fairness, whereas if a referee gives it against 'us', naturally I see it as an abuse to my basic human rights.

Sometimes my wife says sarcastically to me, "why are you taking them so seriously, the players don't share their millions with you, don't worry for them, after the loss they are not a penny poorer..." Rationally I agree with her, but emotionally nothing helps.

So I'm telling you about a random bond - but imagine for a second that three generations of your forefathers supported one of the Old Firm clubs - that you were born into this tradition, you were bred with it and you haven't seen anything outside of it.

The easiest reaction to show after reading the news about the parcel bombs, is to be appalled by and condemn this blind belief, especially if you have nothing to do with it, but as my humble experience shows, it's much more complicated when you are involved with the story.

A friend of mine, an Israeli-Russian writer Dina Rubina once said, "many Russian friends come to Jerusalem and preach to us, asking, 'what is that you can't divide between yourselves and Palestinians? You have the same blood, the same history, the same traditions'. These naive preachers don't understand that what we can't divide is God..."

But paraphrasing Mahatma Ghandi, I also understand that 'an eye for an eye would leave the whole world blind'.

Here's another piece of news that came in, which preceded the first one and might have somehow instigated it.

'Neil Lennon believes it might take the approach taken by UEFA to tackle sectarianism in Scottish football. Rangers could suffer draconian measures such as having to play European games behind closed doors as they fight two UEFA disciplinary cases over alleged sectarian singing at their Europa League games against PSV Eindhoven. Lennon feels such a threat could help tackle the problem in the long run. However, he doubts whether Scotland will ever be totally free of the blight of religious bigotry'.

Yes, the institutions could play their part in rooting out the problem of sectarianism, anti-sectarian education in school could also 'teach controversial issues, the exploration of social values and the fostering of active participation' according to Curriculum for Excellence, recommended in Scotland.

But ultimately if not all, at least part of the problems which we see in 'others' lie in fact in 'ourselves' and my small experience of developing a bond with a local football club, shows how in parallel we develop our own prejudices, which then cloud our outlook.