The 2012 Summer Olympics in London will be held during Ramazan.
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Fatemeh
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thabet
The “God Games”.
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aziz
The NBA is now allowed to sign Iranian nationals. Iranian center Hamed Ehadadi is now a free agent. Maybe there’s some geopolitical value to the Olympics after all
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Fatemeh
This week on MMW, we dicussed the Toronto Star’s offensive mischaracterization of Sofia Baig, reviewed A Jihad for Love, looked at an Egyptian campaign against sexual harassment, and critiqued some pretty irritating coverage of Muslim women in the Olympics. And compiled a whopper of a link round-up.
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thabet
Via Sunny, comes a New York Times report of incidents at the Olympics involving the Spanish and Iranian athletes. Sunny calls these incidents ‘racism’.
I’d like to concentrate on the incident involving an Iranian:
[An] Iranian swimmer [...] called in sick to his swimming heat, almost certainly to avoid getting into the pool with an Israeli.
Unsporting? Yes. Pathetic? I’d agree. ‘Racism’? I am not so sure.
If it isn’t racism that made England cricket team pull out of touring Zimbabwe, then why must it be racism if an Iranian pulls out of a swimming race with an Israeli?
Clearly, this is sport and politics mixing together like they have always done.
The Iranian National Olympic Committee apparently sees no problem with one if its swimmers taking on an Israel, according to this CNN report (which also explains Iran did the same in the 2004 games).
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aziz
Veiled athletes at the Olympics:
This year’s Games will see a sizable sprinkling of veiled athletes who are determined to avoid offending devout Muslims back home while showing skimpily dressed rivals there is nothing constricting about wearing “hijab.”
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aziz
Wang Daiyu describes the accommodation for religious prayer for Olympic athletes.
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thabet
Iraq has been banned from the Olympics.
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Andrea Useem
The case for barring Olympic teams that bar women from competing — hello Muslim world!
