Islam and the Olympics.
2012, Aug.15th jonmc
We all know that Muslims from around the world participated in the Olympics and have won some medals for various Countries as well.
According to Jihad Watch this is the first Olympics “to which every participating [Muslim] country has sent female athletes”.
On the one hand this is clearly a step forward, on the other many concessions to Islam have been made in order to achieve this progress.
The Jihad watch article highlights: “London will make Olympic history by having for the first time an Olympic Village with areas designated for Muslim prayers. A team of Muslim clerics is available to athletes and officials, and there are faith rooms at the rowing and canoe sprint village and the sailing village. All restaurants and dining facilities at the Athletes’ Village will be open 24 hours to allow Muslims to eat in the permitted hours during Ramadan. Halal meat and meals are available at all times in the athletes’ dining facilities…”
Personally I have no problem with this: it seems only fair that if their athletes are competing, the accommodation etc. should provide for their needs and there are Christian Chaplains appointed to the Olympics also.
So nothing really to fuss about there.
But there are darker tones to Muslim involvement too…
Muslims have been making “points” before the Olympics:
There was the case of the young “Asian” man who tried to grab the Olympic torch whilst it was on it’s tour of Britain (see here). That he was Muslim was given away by the fact that he was shouting “Allah akbar” as he tried to grab the torch. What his “point” was, or if indeed he even had one, will be forever unknown since he was rapidly bundled away and prevented from doing whatever it was that he had been intending. (If his point was that allah was greater than the torch – then his god is rather small, I’d say.)
Calls for a minute’s silence before the athletes parade at the opening ceremony to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Munich massacre of Israeli athletes were squashed by the IOC president Jacques Rogge. The reason given by Rogge was that it would “politicise” the games and/or that the “opening ceremony was not a fit occasion”. Though why it is “political” to remember the murder of athletes at an Olympic games is hard to fathom – especially when those calling for the minute weren’t even insisting that the victims be named as Israeli, merely as “victims”, thus the minute’s silence would be for all victims of terrorism at Olympics (Munich isn’t the only occasion). What makes Rogge’s position more irrational is that such silences have been held: in the Winter Olympics of 2002 for 9/11 and again in 2010 for the Luger Nodar Kumaritashvili. Thus silences commemorating both Athletes and Terror attacks have been remembered by silence – but will not be, it seems, if the victims are Israeli or those calling for silence are Israeli.
However, Rogge’s rejection becomes more understandable (though also more disturbing) if another explanation is true: It is alleged that the reason behind this (not articulated by Rogge) was that were it to take place, the Islamic bloc of nations would withdraw from the ceremony and the Palestinians from the Olympics – yet those threats are, of course, not “political” in any way.
Another of Jihad Watch’s points is more salient: “Behind the conspicuous hijab-wearing women in the Opening Ceremony Athletes’ Parade, and the amazing IOC decision to allow a Saudi woman to compete in hijab against judo rules banning fighters from wearing a head covering on safety grounds.” This is strikes me is more worrying, both for her and her opponent.
Then there are the Muslims who seem determined to “make a point” during the Olympics…
In this report: “The IOC acceded to a request from the Lebanese judo team for a barrier to be placed between them and the Israeli team during a training session. The Lebanese had said they would not train in sight of Israelis.” For such a lack of sportsmanship (especially under the terms of the “Olympic truce”), the Lebanese judo team should have been instantly barred for making such an abominable request But they weren’t and that isn’t “political” either of course.
The case of the guard who spat at a British Afghan veteran and called him a “baby killer” the point being made is also clear. Some press reports merely stated that the man was a “G4S guard” (Independent) and focussed not on the egregious nature of the abuse, but the “woes” of G4S’s failure to live up to it’s contract to supply guards (“never mind the quality, we can’t even make the number!”). Other press reports at least managed to call the offender “Asian” which is standard Brit. Press elision of “Muslim” even though it does not take genius to realise that this had to be the case. Amazingly, according to this report, G4S are “waiting to see if the Soldier makes a complaint” (he may well not, it would be “Islamophobic” to do so now wouldn’t it) before sacking the guard!
Update: Now that the Olympics are over it would appear that the guard wasn’t sacked – at least there has been no mention of it in the Press, presumably because the soldier didn’t bother to make a complaint (given what he’d doubtless faced in Afghanistan, mere spitting and verbal abuse would truly negligible).
As noted, The Saudi government allowed female athletes to participate for the first time in this year’s Olympic Games. However, this participation did come with some provisos, including that the women be accompanied by a male guardian, not consort with men and wear Sharia-compliant athletic gear. But to be fair it has to be said that this was authorised despite horrified clerics stating “women’s participation is immodest physical movement in front of unrelated males that threatens the purity, honor and health of the Saudi female.”
And threats against Muslim competitors:
One of two Somali athletes competing at the Olympic Games in London has denied that they are seeking asylum in the UK. Mohamed Hassan Mohamed, a 1500m runner, told the BBC Somali Service they both intended to return home. Earlier his compatriot Zamzam Mohamed Farah, who ran in the first heat of the women’s 400m, spoke of the threats she has faced since competing. Mr Mohammed, 20, told the BBC that he and Ms Farah were going back to the capital, Mogadishu, this coming Tuesday. He admitted that they were worried about the threats they had received but they did not intend to stay in the UK and apply for asylum as some reports had suggested. Ms Farah told London-based Universal TV that she had been singled out for carrying the national flag at the opening ceremony and “exposing herself”{1} during her race. An observant Muslim, the 21-year-old took to the track in a headscarf and with her arms and legs covered. She also ran while fasting, in accordance with the holy month of Ramadan. “There are a lot of threats coming through both Facebook and on the telephone. My parents have also been called and were informed that what I did was not a good thing and that once I return, I will be dealt with.” She added that Mohamed had been told that “there is a cross on his head and that if he returns to Mogadishu, his head will be no more”.
In April, the president of Somalia’s Olympic Committee, Aden Yabarow Wiish, and the Somali Football Federation chief, Said Mohamed Nur, were killed in a suicide attack in Mogadishu. (Source BBC).
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{1} The idea of a woman “exposing herself” whilst covered head-to-toe in Islamic garb is mind-boggling to many Westerners. However, in some strands of Islam every inch of a woman’s body is her “awrah”. This word may be translated as “shame”, but more precisely it means “pudenda”. Thus in the eyes of some Mussalmen any inch of exposed female flesh is the equivalent of her flashing her vagina. This says vastly more about such Mussalmen than anything else, of course.
Short URL: http://www.archive2012.faithfreedom.org/?p=39287
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