Monday, January 08, 2007

THE GLORY OF SPORT

Q: How far away is peace between Israel and its Arab neighbours?

A: In running terms, further than the distance of the longest Olympic footrace if the attitude of the tiny but oil-rich Persian Gulf kingdom of Bahrain is any guide.

Last week, Kenyan born runner Mushir Salem Jawher won Israel's Tiberias Marathon and after the race he spoke of how "people should live together in harmony."

For this, he was stripped of his Bahraini citizenship (read here).

Jawher, has for the time being escaped the fate of Bangla Deshi Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, editor of the Weekly Blitz newspaper, who was arrested last year on sedition charges for his alleged association with Israel and his criticism of the spread of Islamist militancy in Bangladesh. The maximum penalty for this offence is death or 30 year’s imprisonment. Choudhury is still awaiting trial (read here).

Unfortunately, even in this sports mad country, we won't be reading much in our newspapers about either Jawher, or Choudhury. Apparently, their stories pale into insignificance next to the obsession the media has for the injustices that have been heaped upon Saddam Hussein and David Hicks.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Imagine for a moment what would happen if Israel withdrew its citizenship from one of its own people who visited an Arab country to take part in sport?

Would the bleeding hearts in the Age or on the BBC have a field day or what?

Imagine what the letter writers would be saying about Israel?

This poor bloke runs in support of harmony between the people in the region and he's ostracised. The Bangla Deshi wants to connect with Israelis and preaches peace and he's beaten up and arrested.

I'm glad my country (Australia)supports Israel against this mindset of lunacy.