Faster, Higher, Oppressor

The Olympics have been in full swing for a couple of weeks now and for team GB, it’s looking very, very good. At the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Team GB secured only 19 golds and 47 medals overall. At the time of writing, Team GB has won 28 gold medals and in excess of 62 medals overall have been won in a range of sports – cycling, gymnastics, athletics, rowing and more. Team GB’s best gold medal haul in over 100 years. It’s no surprise to see China and the United States fight it out for the top two spots, but for Team GB third is just great and it's not over.

We’ve also had British Muslims representing Team GB at the Games; rower Mohamed Sbihi secured Bronze in the team event, Husayn Rosowsky took part in the men’s fencing, Abdul Buhari competed in the discus and the super, Mo Farah secured a stunning gold in the 10,000m and has now doubled up in the 5,000m.

All this great news has helped us forget about a lot of the negative news surrounding one competing nation, Israel. The Lebanese Judo team took a principled stance and refused to train with the Israelis, why would anybody want to be near those who have acted so aggressively towards them? The Lebanese and most of the world will remember clearly the atrocities of 2006. Competing against the Israelis in the Olympics is one thing, but anything else is unreasonable, though after a separating curtain was placed between them, both teams continued to train.

And the Iranians agree and at one point threatened to not compete against any Israeli athlete. With all the talk of war constantly pushed by Israel, surrounding Iran’s acquisition of nuclear power, why would the Iranians want to be cosy with the Israelis?

In addition, before the Olympics started the Israelis demanded the whole world stand still for a minute during the Opening Ceremony, in remembrance of the Munich massacre in 1972. The demand may not be an outrageous one at first glance, but on closer inspection, the Israelis give Palestinians hell on earth, day in, day out, not just since 1972, but since 1948. If the Israelis make it difficult for Palestinians to commemorate the Nakba, why should anyone want to mark a minute’s silence at Israel’s behest? And that’s not condoning the atrocities of 1972, it's just highlighting the double standards.

But the Olympic Games are nearing their end and it would be a shame to let Israel spoil it. I’m off to enjoy watching a replay of Mo Farah clinching gold in the 5,000m.